New Workforce - The Weblog of New Equities

Retro PC dreams

Remember Atari and Commodore? The Apple II and the original IBM PC (and its hapless successor, the PS/2)? Now, you can relive the TV commercials that sold us all on the dream of owning our own personal computer, thanks to the folks at Downloadsquad, who have meticulosly compiled them in one nostalgic post, "The history of the personal computer in TV commercials".

It's all here, including Apple's famous "1984" superbowl ad introducing the Mac, and the early IBM campaigns incongruously featuring a Chaplin lookalike. Plus, classic Microsoft ads ranging from the Rolling Stones to a bizarre performance by Microsoft's own Steve Ballmer hawking Windows 1.0. Not to be missed!

Hat tip: Pajamas Media and James Hudnall

They all scream for iPhone

Lots of buzz at MacWorld over Apple's new iPhone though somewhat less at CES. The general consensus is that it's pretty damn cool, even as some question whether it's ready for enterprise use.

Meanwhile, Cisco is suing Apple for copyright infringement over its use of the iPhone name.

Coming in 2007: the VR internet

In his now-classic 1981 short story True Names, author Vernor Vinge imagined a worlldwide virtual reality network in which users could assume alter egos and manipulate data with techniques similar to wizardry and magic. Many computer users, particularly gamers, embraced those concepts wholeheartedly, as attested to by the success of Second Life and other online environments (including World of Warcraft and similar MMORPGs). Now a non-profit group is building a new type of internet specifically for VR games and applications:

Neuronet, which is separate from the Internet, "will evolve into the world's first public network capable of meeting the data transmission requirements of emerging cinematic and immersive virtual-reality technologies," according to a Wednesday announcement from the Vancouver-based International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies.

The first-generation Neuronet is scheduled to go live in 2007, the group said. Consumer applications are expected as early as 2009.

Virtual reality generally refers to environments with visual and audio information that makes a person feel immersed in a computer-generated realm. The growth of environments such as Second Life has spotlighted such efforts, and IBM believes that virtual worlds will open new doors to e-commerce as well.

The group promises that Neuronet will have high-speed communication, a key constraint for virtual reality, which requires transmission of large quantities of graphics and other data, as well as fast responses to give users a better illusion of realism.

Although the full impact is still years off, it's not much of a stretch to imagine the impact of such a VR network on project management and collaboration among remote team members. Online meetings and webinars, once a novelty, are now a staple in the business world. In 10 years, will it be commonplace for project teams to collaborate in simulated meeting rooms, solving problems by manipulating shared data models in 3D? IBM's endorsement of Second Life, and now Neuronet, is an indication that it may be.

"This is Unix, It's Easy"

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen offers an amusing take on the movie industry's 10 most egregious UI bloopers. You've seen them in film after film: the hero walks up to a completely strange (or even alien) computer console and, after guessing the password in 3 tries (the screen flashes "Access Granted" in overlarge characters), masters a complex user interface within seconds. In particular, Nielsen singles out one of the all-time great LOL moments for techies:

In the film Jurassic Park, a 12-year-old girl has to use the park's security system to keep everyone from being eaten by dinosaurs. She walks up to the control terminal and utters the immortal words, "This is a Unix system. I know this." And proceeds to (temporarily) save the day.

He also observes:

Films are littered with so many other unrealistic plot details: you'd imagine, for example, that the ability to shoot straight might actually be a primary job requirement of Imperial Stormtroopers.

Yes, it's just entertainment, Nielsen should just lighten up, etc. etc. But his actual point is how unrealistic depiction of technology in TV and films creates expecatations on the part of end-users, and whets the public's appetite for user interfaces that look dramatic and cool, but are not all that practical.

Stephen Colbert punks Wikipedia

Comedian Stephen Colbert, who introduced the term "truthiness" into the collective vocabulary, pulls a stunt that demonstrates the perils of collaborative editing:

Stephen Colbert decided to take on Wikipedia tonight, and discuss his vision for a new "Wikiality," where the masses create the facts they want to believe in. And did they ever. At the conclusion of the amusing segment, Colbert instructs his audience to find the Wikipedia entry on elephants, and edit it to say that "the number of elephants has tripled in the last six months." Not surprisingly, plenty of people went to either make the edit, or to see if had been made.

Colbert's prank underscores the inherent risks in using collaborative environments for knowledge-sharing: accuracy can be easily subverted by authors intent on causing mischief. This is counterbalanced by the opportunity for multiple contributors to amplify a body of knowledge. It all comes down to the trustworhiness of the community providing that knowledge.

Update: According to Business 2.0, Wikipedia was quick to lock down the affected pages: "In this battle of truth vs. truthiness, truth ended up with the upper hand."

April no-fooling video

OK, I can't really justify this post. It has no relation to IT consulting, technology or the 21st century workforce - unless we expect that workforce to be largely made up of jugglers.

But I'm going to post this anyway because it's April 1st, and dang, this video is cool. And that's no fooling.

UPDATE: This video is obviously getting a lot of traffic, so if it seems a bit choppy, check back when the site is less busy. It's way more enjoyable and impressive if the video playback is smooth.

Catching up with the future you

The latest twist on technology - sending emails to your future self:

The site is one of a handful that let people send e-mails to themselves and others years in the future. They are technology's answer to time capsules, trading on people's sense of curiosity, accountability and nostalgia.

"Messages into the future is something that people have always sought to do," said Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future. "In a way, it's a statement of optimism."

Matt Sly, 29, came up with the concept for FutureMe about four years ago. He was inspired one day after recalling how during his education he had been given assignments to write letters to himself.

Sly, who partnered with 31-year-old Jay Patrikios of San Francisco on the project, said the site has made maybe $58 through donations. He is adamant that FutureMe is not a reminder service and that users should think long-term.

The site lets people send messages 30 years from now, though Sly's numbers show most users schedule their e-mails to be sent within three years.

"We want people to think about their future and what their goals and dreams and hopes and fears are," he said. "We're trying to facilitate some serious existential pondering."

He said a large number of the messages sent do one of two basic things: tell the future person what the past person was doing at the time, and ask the future person if he or she had met the aspirations of the past person.

"The tone of the past person is not always friendly," said Sly, now a Yale University graduate student. "It's often like 'Get off your lazy butt.'"

Of course, some things are probably best left relegated to the past.

"The lesson about all these things, it's the lesson from time capsules, is you have to be careful lest you set yourself up for enormous embarrassment in two decades," Saffo said. "Do you really want to be reminded that you thought ABBA was cool?"

We'd like to thank the Academy...

OK, that may be just a bit premature. But Jason Davis at Recruiting.com just informed me that we have been nominated for the Recruiting.com Best Blog Awards for 2005, in the category, "Best Third-Party Blogs".

Jobster's Dave Lefkow did the honors (thanks, Dave!) and commented, "What's interesting to note is that they are a staffing firm, and in the future perhaps would be deserving of their own category." Though we don't think of New Equities as a "staffing firm" in the traditional sense, we do like to think we are in a category of our own. (All immodesty aside, any tip of the hat is gratefully acknowledged.)

UPDATE: Taleo's weblog was the winner in our category of third-party blogs - and well-deserved as their blog is very well done. But we'll be back next year! In any event, it was great to see New Workforce among the nominees.

The Dilbert blog

On the heels of my recent post on the perils of working for someone who channels the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert, I have now learned that Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, now has his own blog. It's titled unsurpringly enough, "The Dilbert blog".

Bill Gates saves the world

And more in Google Park, a rather off-the-wall South Park-inspired comic satire featuring Microsoft's Robert Scoble vs the sales aliens (and fluffy bunnies!) from Google.

Strange? Yes, but also quite amusing (and probably uproariously funny for those steeped in the inside baseball aspects of the latest Microsoft-Google range war).

UPDATE: The Onion is piling on, with a similar though probably unrelated, item: "Google announces plan to destroy all information it can't index." Google has given indications that it aspires to be the next Microsoft. Just goes to show: be careful what you wish for.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now France is entering the fray.

MORE: Just installed the latest Beta of Google Desktop, Google's latest foray into creating an "Internet Operating System" that will enable them to take over the world...er, that is, help us keep track of essential information. So far, looks pretty cool, not to mention useful. If any of our readers are using Google desktop and want to weigh in on the good, the bad and the fluffy, please put in your $.02 in the comments thread below.

AND MORE: The inevitable sequel.