So I've finally had a chance to blog after being snowed in for the past few days. Not sure why being snowed in means I haven't updated. Well - I sort of do - I was spending time with the lady, doing homework, housework, playing in the snow, etc.
In any event, the TECH Cocktail update - if I could summarize it in one word, it would be: CROWDED. I would estimate well over 100? 200? people there, in addition to about 8 or so companies that had stands set up. My $10 ticket bought me two free drinks - I went with a Sapporo - I figured it was a little classier than a Miller Lite.
I'm not the greatest at these networking events, especially in a crowded, noisy bar/lounge. I suppose I could have handled it better in a larger room, less noise, etc., so I'm not really the type to just walk up to a group of people chatting, introduce myself, ingratiate, etc. I found out my best course of action, especially given that I'm currently jobless, was to chat with the companies who were presenting there.
I talked to Neeraj Jaiman of CYNCZ, Jared Goralnick of AwayFind, and several others, including ClingPhoto, RowdyOrbit, SeeJoeRock, Amplify, and WhereMark.
I do have to say that WhereMark is simply fantastic - makes me want an iPhone 3GS. It's literally what I've been dreaming about since I saw the Terminator movies back in the day.
AwayFind is something GF would love - if I never had to check my email again. She thinks I'm hooked to my crackPhone. Which I am. But shh! Don't tell her that.
RowdyOrbit has some interesting video content/webisodes, and SeeJoeRock is a great way to discover new music.
Amplify is another cool site - kind of yet-another-news-aggregation-and-social-networking service, but it's got some slick features, including a bookmarklet that works extremely well.
I did my due diligence and wrote emails to everyone I spoke to, and have heard some positive responses regarding the interaction at tech cocktail, but nothing concrete yet. Will keep trying...
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Signal vs. Noise
I was having a discussion last night with a friend (the same one responsible for this) who mentioned that his parents are "so wrong about some things," and brought up the question of Signal-vs.-Noise.
His parents (as are all of our parents) are from a different time period. Not only that, they are from a different era in another country - China. I offered to him the fact that a lot of times parents sort of have these classic nuggets of wisdom that can be gleaned - so they can be right, even when their suggestions are "wrong for me," specifically.
His argument, however, was that for him, the signal-to-noise ratio of the conversations he has with his parents make it not worth the cost of trying to glean that out. Unfortunate, but an interesting way of thinking about it.
It got me thinking about other sources of signal-and-noise. Google Reader. Classes. Books. Television. What mediums (media?) are worth it? This ties into the whole information-overload argument - it used to be that he with the most information won; now he who filters the information best and has the most relevant information wins. But what if getting that relevant information is not cost-effective?
Google Trends reports that of my 843 subscriptions (how did it get back that high?), in the last 30 days I've read 1,348 items. That's 45 items per day, out of what varies from 2000 and 5000 items posted per day, for a 0.9% to 2.25% read-through rate. I'm no digital signal expert, but I'm guessing a 50-to-1 or 100-to-1 noise-to-signal ratio is not a very good place to be. Time to declutter perhaps...
Just a random babble...
His parents (as are all of our parents) are from a different time period. Not only that, they are from a different era in another country - China. I offered to him the fact that a lot of times parents sort of have these classic nuggets of wisdom that can be gleaned - so they can be right, even when their suggestions are "wrong for me," specifically.
His argument, however, was that for him, the signal-to-noise ratio of the conversations he has with his parents make it not worth the cost of trying to glean that out. Unfortunate, but an interesting way of thinking about it.
It got me thinking about other sources of signal-and-noise. Google Reader. Classes. Books. Television. What mediums (media?) are worth it? This ties into the whole information-overload argument - it used to be that he with the most information won; now he who filters the information best and has the most relevant information wins. But what if getting that relevant information is not cost-effective?
Google Trends reports that of my 843 subscriptions (how did it get back that high?), in the last 30 days I've read 1,348 items. That's 45 items per day, out of what varies from 2000 and 5000 items posted per day, for a 0.9% to 2.25% read-through rate. I'm no digital signal expert, but I'm guessing a 50-to-1 or 100-to-1 noise-to-signal ratio is not a very good place to be. Time to declutter perhaps...
Just a random babble...
Another latex test
Just trying to figure out how to get it to work in Google Reader...I'm using the tex.yourequations.com script, and I tried adding the script tag to my feed footer. But for some reason, it only converts to an equation on the blog page, not in the feed. Has anyone done this before? Have any tips to get it to work? Thanks!
\int_{0}^{1}\frac{x^{4}\left(1-x\right)^{4}}{1+x^{2}}dx
=\frac{22}{7}-\pi
TECH Cocktail DC 8, in t-minus 5 hours!
I did it! I signed up for TECH Cocktail DC 8, just to see what the fuss was about. It looks like a great opportunity to check out what's going on in the DC area in terms of tech companies, as well as meet a few people. I'll report back after the event, so stay tuned!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
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