Wil's Way

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News from the New York Times that the Library of Congress is pushing for Apple to unlock the Apple iPhone and allow non-iTunes Store Apps to run on the phone sounds eerily similar to the way Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was tightly integrated into Windows.

Yes, Apple has the monopoly of a new technology/service/platform. And yes, people despise monopolies. But doesn’t a single leader of a new industry help shape the growth of the industry, placing a form of structure around processes and pricing that allows the industry to blossom from niche to ubiquitous?

I remember standing in one of the rooms at the Tech Museum of Innovation when it first opened (I think it’s now just called Tech Museum). The room was dedicated to the history of the computer, which included all the fun battles between Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Novell, etc. As I was reading over the details, someone behind me started using the F-bomb as an adjective when talking about all-things-Microsoft.

I thought to myself:

Yeah, let’s trash Microsoft and everything they’ve done. Really, since it’s likely the room you are standing in would not exist without all-things-Microsoft.

I didn’t say anything aloud, but rather just half-assed chuckled at their responses.

I’m not a Microsoft fanboy, but I do understand and appreciate their importance in the maturity of computer hardware and software today. Like them or not, they helped define where we are today.

And so here we are again, going from a love affair with Apple (I stood in line and grabbed one of the first iPads in NYC) to starting to suggest they have a bit too much power (I don’t like my iPhone anymore). Didn’t Microsoft go through this phase with its customers?

And didn’t we, as customers, all come out just fine in the end?

Have you ever noticed the different punctuation of the “Internet”? Sometimes it’s capitalized, and sometimes it’s not. Odd.

I was always taught there was The Internet …

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide.

Source

… along with An internet …

Any set of computer networks that communicate using the Internet Protocol.

Source

Confused?

Check out this article, a recent interview with Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt by Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land. In it, the word “internet/Internet” is used 16 times:

• internet referenced 12 times
• Internet referenced 4 times

Sometimes, the word is mixed-used within the same sentence and reference. Again, odd.

Maybe the word is being used differently now since internets aren’t as widely talked about these days. Still, shouldn’t there be some sort of consistency?

The folks over at Aching Brian have had enough. Maybe it’s not that big of a deal, but we should just pick one and stick with it.

Oops. I added a plugin to my site this morning and walked away. Double oops, since I didn’t really read the documentation before meandering from the computer.

As you can see from the screenshot below, I finally noticed three hours after it was posted. By then, it had done a number on my Twitter feed and posts – sorry to all those who had to thumb through these.

A lot of other plugins I’ve installed are deactivated after the installation is complete. I assumed this was the case with this plugin, too. Regardless, I should have checked.

Lesson learned.

I’m planning to use the plugin in a different area, maybe a lifestream page on the site.

I’ll definitely be more careful before pushing it live.

What if all of Earth’s six billion people were to live at the density of New York City?

— http://urbandemographics.blogspot.com

Study after study shows that dense urban environments, supported by the right transportation, lead to lower health care costs, less dependence on foreign oil, less risk of environmental accidents, less global warming, and more competitiveness.

– http://urbanomnibus.net

I just found this post, The Ultimate Guide To Football Books. I’m glad I’ve only read two and a half of these – gives me something to shoot for. The entry is nearly a year old, but the comments stretch through 21-Jul of this year.

Hopefully the comments provide even more books, along with thoughts on the given list.

Also, I like the title of the post is

The Ultimate Guide To Football Books

but the title of the page is

Ultimate guide to the best soccer books

I wonder how the SEO folks feel about this – can/do they make the connection between football and soccer?

In a recent article in Foreign Policy, Simon Kuper argues that globalization has dampened the international intensity from the World Cup.  The games are no longer fueled with political, economic, or social unrest, rather they are simply pitting sometimes boring styles against even more boring styles.

It seems that the main geopolitical significance of the World Cup now lies in the logistics of organizing it. The soccer is just for fun (although in truth most of the games were dull). The World Cup no longer means much. And that’s a relief.

Tough to argue that point in 2010.  
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I initially thought about that phrase while attending the Brooklyn Business Expo back in March. The talk was geared towards what we pitch and sell to our customers – products, services, being nice, etc.

The more the discussion continued, the more I realized it wasn’t anything tangible we pitch and sell, rather it’s trust.
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Every week, I get out of the office and meet with long-time clients, new customers, and prospects. This is a time-consuming process across a number of rolling weeks, including overlapping tasks such as:

• Find out a list of focused contacts
• The right message for these folks
• Juggle schedules to make the most efficient use of time
• Prepare for each meeting with the proper due diligence
• …

These are fun trips. Even with the occasional poor or rude contact, it’s nice to make human connections with our external partners. Digital communication is nice, too, but the effort in shaking someone’s hand helps alleviate the ‘working without seeing‘ rut we can fall into.

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