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Archive for the ‘Baby Booomers’ Category

E.B. White wrote: “The miracle of Christmas is that, like the distant and very musical voice of the hound, it penetrates finally and becomes heard in the heart over so many years, through so many cheap curtain-raisers….So this day and this century proceed toward the absolutes of convenience, of complexity, and of speed, only occassionally holding up the little trumpet (as at Christmas time) to be reminded of the simplicities, and to hear the distant music of the hound.”

Feliz Navidad ! Joyeux Noel ! Buono Natale !

Earlier today I was interviewed about augmented reality on Bob Cudmore’s radio show which is simulcast on radio in the Amsterdam, NY area on Lite 104.7FM and 1570AM and which is also streamed at www.1570WVTL.com

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, John C. Havens first made me aware of augmented reality this summer on his BlogTalkRadio series. Since then, BusinessWeek’s Stephen H. Wildstrom has been following the trend while Esquire magazine, John Mayer’s new album and the new book about Michael Jackson have actually employed the technology.

To clarify, with virtual reality the environment is totally computer-generated and the user becomes immersed in that computer-generated world where nothing is real. (Think The Simms and Grand Theft Auto). With augmented reality, computer-generated applications
(apps) are imposed onto the real world using the web camera on your computer or SmartPhone to provide additional information or to enhance your real-life experience.

Zugara’s Webcam Social Shopper lets you try on clothes (virtually) then take pictures to send to your Facebook friends to get their opinions:

Baby Boomers might watch this video about Microsoft’s Xbox Project Natal and think it’s just about games but the last part of the video shows some very practical applications for augmented reality technology:

In an earlier posting, I’ve talked about some new iPhone apps which Baby Boomers might find useful.

At one point, a lot of us thought that GPS units were a little frivolous. If you have a GPS unit now, you probably think of it as essential.

I’d be interested in whether or not you can foresee augmented reality becoming an integral part of your lifestyle.

Augmented reality is the overlaying of digital data on the real world. In a world where pretty soon that mobile device most of us use to make phone calls will also replace your laptop, your GPS, your radio and who-knows-what-else the concept of augmented reality is not as outlandish as it initially seems.

In a recent article, Mashable listed what the editors deemed “10 Amazing Augmented Reality iPhone Apps”. These were the ones that seemed the most practical for Baby Boomers like me:

This app identifies Wi-Fi hotspots and potential workplaces like coffee shops, bookstores, libraries,etc. and provides user reviews. Right now, it’s only available in London but versions for Manhattan, San Francisco, Berlin and Madrid are due to be released soon.

With this app, you can use your iPhone to gauge short distances up to a foot (30 centimeters) and, using the built-in camera, shows an overlay onto the live image on your phone’s screen which changes as you move the phone.

And when was the last time you forgot where you parked? Once your car’s location is set, Car Finder creates a visible marker that shows the car, how far away from it you are and tells you in what direction to head.

Do you think you’d use these apps? What apps would you like to see developed which aren’t yet available?

You can check out the other apps that Mashable recommends at http://bit.ly/iPhone_app

Saratoga Springs resident, Bruce Piasecki has consulted Toyota and HP about the capitalistic benefits of going green. Hear Bruce’s perspective in this interview on the Small Business Advocate podcast.

Click here to learn more about Bruce’s book.

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about John Mayer is using augmented reality with his new album and how the technology will be incorporated into a new book about Michael Jackson which will be released just in time for Christmas.

Augmented Reality is becoming a hot topic. BusinessWeek magazine has an article in its November 23rd issue about the Dutch startup, Layar which makes free software that developers can use to associate digital info with specific locations. On the BusinessWeek website, technology editor Peter Elstrom interviews Stephen H. Wildstrom who wrote an article, “Augmented Reality:Not That Real Yet” for the magazine. You can read the article and listen to the interview here:
http://bit.ly/2kWiRx

Meanwhile, the December 2009 edition of Esquire magazine with Robert Downey, Jr. on the cover is titled the Augmented Reality issue. I think you’ll enjoy this video:

And you’ve got to watch this from Pranav Mistry at TEDIndia

So, how do you see augmented reality being incorporated into your life?

In September, I wrote about about a customer service problem I experienced with my local Home Depot. Since Brindle Media’s services include marketing, branding and customer service, I thought it would be useful and fair to the Home Depot organization to to share my experience and post this follow-up.

A brief overview: Due to negligence on the part of the plumbing subcontractor that installed a water heater which I’d purchased at Home Depot in late July, our laundry room was flooded. The plumber paid for an emergency crew to dry out the laundry room and installed some dry wall which had to be removed but refused to take responsibility for restoring the room to its original state. The plumbing company then proceeded to turn the victim into a victimizer and accused me of trying to rip them off. That whole process took us to mid-September. When I complained to the local Home Depot who had hired the subcontractor for installation, their position was that I needed to negotiate directly with the subcontractor. This is where social media and customer service entered the picture.

After blogging about the problem on September 14th, I Twittered about the blog and hash-tagged Home Depot. Within minutes of that tweet, I was contacted by Michael at Home Depot’s customer care center in Atlanta who then connected me with Stephanie in the company’s Customer Care Social Media department. Within 48 hours, I was connected with Sedgwick Claims Management and on October 22nd received a check to cover the cost restoring our laundry and family rooms to a semblance of their pre-accident state.

As a customer, I was very satisfied with my treatment by Michael and Stephanie on behalf of Home Depot and by Tammy at Sedwick CMS. The good news is that the situation was resolved. The bad news is that the resolution took three months. It was interesting and disturbing that no one on the regional or local level at Home Depot ever bothered to follow up.

So the lesson here is that when you encounter a customer service problem with a national retail chain, social media tools like Twitter and Facebook can provide you the leverage that you need to get the attention of the customer service department and help resolve a problem using a top-down rather than a bottom-up approach.

Hopefully, you won’t ever find yourself in a situation where you’ll need to employ this advice !

For those of us who’ve been used to the standard in-car FM/AM/CD player with mp3 player plug-in options, things are about to get a lot more complicated. It won’t be long before the ability to receive Internet radio will become standard in new cars which will mean that you’ll have the ability to choose from not only local radio stations but also from among the 10,000 or more Internet stations from around the world.

Can you say “Information overload” ?

It’s pretty obvious that we’re going to need help in narrowing our choices with aggregators and I’ve been wondering when we’d start seeing these services pop up. So I was pleased to read Jennifer Lane’s Audio4cast (www.Audio4cast.com) and Mark Ramsey’s Hear 2.0 (www.hear2.com) recent blogs about Muziic and MixCloud.

Jennifer notes that Muziic was created by 15 year old developer and offers the chance to search for music, listen to Internet radio stations, watch music videos, build playlists, chat with friends, or post what you’re listening to on Twitter.

Mark points out that MixCloud is designed to be the equivalent of YouTube for radio shows. It’s not about individual songs but rather about individual talk or music shows.

I’d be interested to learn what you think about these services.

(Photo courtesy of Daniel Alexander/FramesMedia.com)

I first met John C. Havens at one of my friend, Bill Sobel’s NY:MIEG (NY Media Information Exchange Group) monthly networking breakfasts in Manhattan. John is a very likeable and knowledgeable guy on the social media scene who hosts a podcast on BlogTalkRadio. Recently he’s been doing a series about a subject I’d never heard of before, “augmented reality”. To be honest, I still don’t quite understand it but you can listen to John’s “Tactical Transparency” podcast about it here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/augmented-reality/

“The Official Michael Jackson Opus” biography which is now available at www.michaeljacksonopus.com is 400 pages, weighs 26 pounds and features “augmented reality” that will allow you to integrate both video and music so that you can watch and listen through your computer (webcam required). It will cost you $ 249 at www.michaeljacksonopus.com

You can watch Al Roker’s TODAY SHOW interview about the book and see an example of how it will integrate “augmented reality” here:

Any thoughts about how you might be incorporating “augmented reality” into your daily life in the next few years?

In his book The Greatest Minds and Ideas Of All Time, Will Durant wrote that the Christian Age “seems to be approaching its close” while the Islamic religion is “still growing in numbers and strength”. I recall when the Soviet Union collapsed back in the early 1990s thinking that it seemed likely that the rivalry which replaced Democracy vs. Communism would be Christianity vs. Islam: western culture vs. eastern culture. It just seemed logical. Of course, the problems aren’t caused by the vast majority of those who follow the prophet Mohammed nor with the followers of Jesus Christ. It’s the whack job fanatics who create the crises we face today.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, the U.S. faces some tough decisions. Do we commit more troops and possibly follow in the footsteps of the Russians and the British failures? Current polls indicate that the majority of Americans oppose sending in more troops. But as the world’s defender of freedom, do we have a moral responsibility to stayand help Afghanistan’s people thwart the Taliban?

Scott Simon, who was a journalist in Afghanistan eight years ago when the Taliban was in power and al Qaeda (or al-Qaida) used the country as its base of operations, makes some relevant points in this commentary http://bit.ly/SSimon

Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden and his cronies remain just over the border in Pakistan and remain a factor in the Afghanistan equation. In this interview with U.S. News & World Report, Howard Clark talks about How You Can Kill al Qaeda (in 3 easy steps) http://bit.ly/HClark

It seems pretty obvious that we should be cautious about committing too many American troops in Afghanistan and that the troops who are deployed there should be focused on thwarting the Taliban while building trust and credibility to win the hearts and minds of the people. Some of us will question if we can afford to do this but can we afford not to?

How trusted do you feel by your employees, colleagues, clients?

How much do you trust them?

Dov Seidman, the author of “How: Why How we Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (And In Life)” makes some interesting points in this recent BusinessWeek article http://bit.ly/CR2rT

Meanwhile, at a recent TED (Technology-Entertainment-Design) event, Daniel Pink shared some eye-opening findings about how to motivate people. You can watch it here: http://bit.ly/PinkTED
(Thanks to Jerry Del Calliano for making me aware of this)