Class V

Stream of Thought

Feel like I've traveled back in time two or three years, and am blogging from a tech conference.  Here at the Real Time Stream CrunchUp and thoroughly enjoying engaging a side of my brain that's been a bit dormant for a while. As high a mountain today's search engines seemed to have climbed in indexing all static web pages, there is an even higher peak to ascend in indexing (in a relevant way to each individual) all of the streaming, real time information being created on the web now. 

With real time information, the volume will be massive.  Filters will be needed but by definition, filtering suggests a screen of some kind that may slow down the "real time" quality of the information.  Our relationship to information today is more about recall or memory, but in the future, our relationship to information will likely be much more forward thinking.  Big problems.  Exciting time to be a tech entrepreneur.

Certain industries, such as finance (trading) and intelligence (CIA), have invested billions in handling streaming data because minutes (even seconds) matter in those fields.  I wonder if there are other industries where this is true.  If so, then this concept of indexing (and then analyzing or monetizing) streaming, real time data may indeed be a big deal.

Motivation

Inspiration can strike during the most mundane of moments.  Working far too late in the office on a Friday night, perusing an old friend's blog, I was reminded of how interesting these random scrapbook pages on the World Wide Web can be.

Not that any of my digital "scrapbook pages" may be of any interest to anyone other than me, but it's all good.

The digital break was terrific.  I haven't perused any message boards in over a year (and have zero intention of engaging again anytime in the near future), I took a several month hiatus from Facebook, I've been very hit or miss with microblogging and digital photography and the rest of it.  And amazingly, life goes on.  The financial system collapse, Obama inauguration, Mexico drug wars, African pirates and David Ortiz being benched notwithstanding.

Improbable Injury

Everyone that's heard my story, even my orthopod, can't believe it but it's true - about a week ago, I managed to completely destroy my right elbow in knee high water, before I had even enjoyed a paddle out for a surf session in Santa Cruz county.  Absolutely freak accident, and I don't want to relive the details here.

Diagnosis by MRI: ruptured UCL (major elbow ligament) and partially torn biceps and triceps tendons.

For now, we're focused on getting the significant swelling down, which is contributing to both the pain and limited Range Of Motion ("ROM").  A week later, it's still far more swollen than it should be, so just started a course of oral steroids.  If we're not making good progress by Thanksgiving on that front, I'll get a cortisone shot the week after to really try and knock it down.

Physical therapy starts Tuesday.  Needs to be done, whether I get surgery or not.  Muscles around the joint need to be strengthened to take on more of the load going forward, and I need to do whatever I can to try and preserve as much ROM as possible.  This is my right elbow, and I'm right handed, so that really kind of sucks - daily tasks which are currently a major challenge include eating and putting my hair up.  (So if you see me walking down the street, you may not recognize this woman with the unkept hair and food dribbling off her face. ;-))

Surgery?  We'll see.  If I can't live a normal life (which I define as not needing to throw a major league fastball but needing to be able to swim competitively, ice climb, lift heavy objects and otherwise be active) then Tommy John surgery will likely be in order.  Seeking other expert opinions, and giving myself at least a few weeks to adjust to life without a UCL, before we make the decision.

Need to learn to keep my typing more brief.

Microblogging: Second Chance

After blogging previously about my inability to see the utility of a microblogging service such as Twitter ... I've changed my mind to the point that I'm willing to make a good go of it, and really try it out.

Not sure if I am going to continue to publish my Twitter feed on this blog, so if you're interested, you may want to officially "follow" me on Twitter now.  My Twitter name is advencap.

What changed my mind?

1. Inability to type as quickly as I once did, thanks to an elbow injury suffered this week (separate blog post later).  The 140 character limit is very appealing, at least for now.
2. Lance Armstrong's Twitter.  Twitter name: lancearmstrong  It's really him (not a PR professional), it's cool to read about his day to day life as he juggles his Foundation work and his comeback on the Tour, and great motivation when I'm just sitting around being lazy.
3. The fact that I can link all of my status updates to one source, that is, Twitter now updates my Facebook status automatically.

On a totally separate note: yes, the format and design of Class V has been altered a bit.  Still a work in progress, although the aforementioned elbow injury may put future changes on hold for a while.  But suggestions always welcome!

When Genius Isn't So Sharp

I'm no expert on artificial intelligence ... heck, I'm not even sure that's the applicable field here.  But one of the greatest challenges for technology that I can think of is matching items that are full of subjective "data": music, people, etc.  (I would have placed visual art into that category too - but it's amazing how far image recognition has come in the last few years.)

For the sake of my current profession, it's a good thing that "people" will likely be the last nut that matching technology cracks.

Getting back to music, I've been playing with the "Genius" feature of iTunes this morning.  Bottom line: there is still a way to go here.  There have been services out in the market for far longer - iLike comes to mind - and none have really completely solved the problem.  For example: let's take one of my cheesy seventies tunes currently on heavy rotation: "Let It Ride" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.  Another blogger described this music as "big dumb rock" that is undeniably "catchy".  I can't describe it any better than that.  In fact, I'd love to have nine more songs just like it.  But no service to date has really given me good answers.

The wisdom of the crowds - social data that is generated from other people's playlists and listening habits - can be helpful, but at the end of the day, music tastes are so subjective that the match is not completely precise.  I get a lot of recommendations for random seventies hits this way, but that's not necessarily what I am looking for.

Technical data - the actual notes - could also be useful, but the problem can be summed up this way: any band could learn to play the music of "Let It Ride" and it still wouldn't quite capture the actual "feel" of the original.

So I am left playing "Let It Ride" on repeat - neighbors be damned - until something better comes along.

Technorati Tags: music recommendation, iTunes, iLike, Bachman Turner Overdrive