Intel’s Chief recently explored some of the innovations that are shaping technology, and suggested that computers will surpass humans in intelligence by 2050. Although I think that is a pessimistic time frame, it is encouraging to see the notion of very intelligent and/or conscious computers discussed in the mainstream company news:
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080821comp.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20080821m
Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay, California
Vikingsholm, Lake Tahoe
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay is one of the most scenic areas in California – some would say this is the prettiest place in the whole state. Vikingsholm is a nordic mansion built on the lake almost 100 years ago, now managed by the state park system. Inside the mansion is fully furnished with mostly original furniture and other historic artifacts, including a Steinway Rosewood Piano commissioned especially for Vikingsholm.
Mark Twain visited Lake Tahoe long before Vikingsholm – in fact I wonder if his writing may have influenced the choice to build there. Here is Twain on Tahoe in second of two chapters in “Roughing It” that talk about his trip from Nevada to the Lake.
(thanks to Horatiox for the tip!)
Early reports are suggesting that the Android operating system will be very “developer friendly”. Android is promoted and supported by Google for the crop of new phones coming this fall. The OS will be very open for developers and robust, suggesting we’ll see a lot of great innovation in this space very soon, innovation that is consistent with Google’s very open architecture standards (except in search!)
The Oregon Coast is arguably the top “branded” destination name in the state, and one of the top destination brands nationally, so it strikes me as very odd that some very high priced marketing firms are suggesting they rebrand our beautiful Oregon Coastline as “The People’s Coast”.
In addition to suffering from geographical vagueness and ambiguity, “The People’s Coast” is unlikely to conjure up the imagery the Oregon Coast deserves – powerful crashing surf, beautiful sandy beaches, rocky sea stacks towering majestically just off the shore, a lush blue spruce and fir forest sweeping down to the shoreline, and so much more.
Sure, the Oregon Coast is a “People’s Coast”, just like Viet Nam’s where the “People’s Coast Guard” stands watch, but I’m not feeling how this brand is going to take off, let alone bring more folks to the state. More importantly terms like the People’s Coast diminish the current powerful theme of the Oregon Coast which not only promotes that region but associates it with the rest of Oregon. I’m partial to my own region – Southern Oregon – which I promoted online for many years and which includes portions of the magnificent Oregon Coast. whoops, I guess I mean that Southern Oregon contains portions of the People’s Coast…
The Android Guys are reporting on the design of the Google Phone from T Mobile and it’s looking pretty impressive. They also link to a spec sheet showing the phone will have a sizeable screen, pull out keyboard, 3 megapixel camera, and more.
I’m glad to have been correct to suggest the phone would make it out before next year and expect this to be a very popular 2008 Christmas Gift, even if the pricing is higher than I expect which is $150-$250 or perhaps even less to undercut the Apple iPhone market.
This earlier-than-announced launch is probably very bad news for Sprint’s instinct and other smartphones, as it is likely that we’ll see the smartphones of choice become either Apple or Android based phones.
No Prohibition Ad, Fells Point, Baltimore Harbor 265
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Fells Point is one of Baltimore’s most historic areas. Here, a “Vote Against Prohibition” advertisement has lasted long past the demise of Prohibition. Perhaps not coincidentally the Fells Point area is known for bars and nightly rowdiness.
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is the perfect example of how history and travel intersect in wonderful ways. Formerly the Inner Harbor was mainly for shipping, but over the past several decades Baltimore has turned this into a convention and tourism hot spot for the entire coast.
One of the most appealing features in Baltimore are the Water Taxis which take you from place to place all day for $9, offering a cheap tour. Be sure to ask the pilots about the buildings and harbor history – most are very well informed.
Lake Tahoe Emerald Bay
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck
Emerald Bay of Lake Tahoe. In my opinion this area is one of the prettiest spots in all of the American West. Highway 89 heads north from South Lake Tahoe to Tahoe City and cuts between Emerald Bay and a lake so you are perched high above two beautiful mountain lakes on the drive. For a superb day hike consider parking at DL Bliss State Park and hiking to Vikingshome, the historic small mansion by the lake now run by the park service. About 5 miles one way and you can take a trolly back (seasonal!) to your car or hike back. 2 to 3 hours each way on a beautiful, mostly flat trail.
This was a video from the Google Dance with the Treo – not sure if this will embed properly or not as I’m working via Flickr.
Blogging the conference has been a great way to test some ideas about blog ranking and watch Google struggle to bring the most relevant content into the main search (they’ve done pretty well with blog search, not so well with regular search which will have all the blog content listed in a week or so, basically too late to be all that helpful to users). More importantly the stuff from *this year* will probably be ranked above the SES San Jose 2009 information that is likely what people using that term are searching for effective next year. I’d think they could simply increase the value of ‘freshness’ for listings tagged as events related.
I had a nice discussion about this “events” ranking challenge with Jonathan from Google at the party. The problem is that to combat spam Google does not push out blog content immediately, meaning that if you search for “SES San Jose”, especially a month ago or so, you would have been likely to get old, dated content rather than the current SES page you’d normally want to find. This appears related to linking issues (newer has fewer), but also I think the regular engine is allergic to new content, which is why you’ll often find the most relevant Google stuff at the blog search if it’s a topic that is covered heavily by blogs such as SES or CES Las Vegas where I noted the same issues of “stale content” in the main search with “great content” in the blog search.
I remain convinced that some of the challenges faced in ranking could be solved by a combination of more algorithmic transparency from Google combined with greater accountability by publishers who’d agree to provide a lot more information about their companies so that Google can get a good handle on the credibility of the online landscape. This webmaster ID is happening now in several ways but I’d think it could be scaled up to include pretty much everybody publishing anything online (ie if you don’t register you’ll be subjected to higher scrutiny).
This post moved to Technology Report
Joe Duck 