Evaluating the prognostications of political pundits: (From the WSJ.com’s Numbers Guy (free feature):

“You’re generally better off handing darts to a chimp than trusting the musings of a professional prognosticator.”

Also, another observation about reporters and pundits (and bloggers?):

“…people with expertise in explaining events that have happened aren’t very successful at predicting what will happen.”

Technorati Tags: statistics

Make noise abroad or perish: From the Campus Technology Magazine article, “The Impact of Electronic Publishing”:

“The English word publish was in use before the printing press was invented. It meant “to noise abroad, to make known.” Ink-and-paper has served academe well for a long time, but new collaboration technologies may end up being even more important for satisfying our feverish urge to create new knowledge and to share it with our peers.

Technorati Tags: wiki

The “secret” of making something look easy: Dozens of people spend hundreds of hours making a Steve Jobs’ keynote address appear simple, relaxed and cool. I’ve seen a Stevenote a couple of times (and watched video of plenty more) and I’ve always marveled at how much work and investment and practice and talent it must take to make it look so easy.

A long time ago, I saw the legendary Chet Atkins being interviewed on TV and I don’t recall why or who, but the topic turned to a talented young musician. I will always remember Atkins pausing and saying something like: “When I hear him play guitar, I think of all those lonely hours he must have spent in his bedroom practicing.”

Like getting to Carnegie Hall, all it takes to make something look simple is practice, practice, practice.

Technorati Tags: apple, lifehack

Get ready for this story, football fans: It’s the last sentence in this Tennessean sports column by Joe Biddle: “Young is a protégé of Titans quarterback Steve McNair. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Young becomes the one who replaces McNair?” Here’s a story from last June that explains the protégé angle. The Titans have the number three pick in the draft and if when Young decides to turn pro, well, it’s enough of a possibility to launch a thousand columns during the next couple of months.

Technorati Tags: nashville, titans

Brand Rex update: You just never know where Brand Rex will appear next. Once it was just the lowly name of cigarettes, lard and beer and even unsuccessful technology products. Coming in April, this new stuff from iRex Technologies is sure to make at least one regular reader of this weblog very excited.

Quote:

The iRex Technologies E-reader provides true reading comfort, flexibility and versatility. It can be read outdoors, in sunshine or shadow. As well as reading you can also write comments, mark or underline sections, for a true two-way paper experience. And all of this at the lowest power consumption.

Update: Thanks to the person who wishes to remain anonymous who sent me this link to the new official coffee of the  rexblog.

(via: PaidContent.org))

Technorati Tags: brandrex, e-paper

I guess that explains my problem: (From microsoft.com/smallbusiness [update: fixed link]):

David A. Owens, clinical professor of management at Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Management (says the way you write e-mails) provides a window into your workplace status, work habits, stress levels, even your personality, he says….Owens is an organizational behavior guru who can analyze an anonymous piece of e-mail and tell you the sender’s likely corporate rank and seniority level….”Higher status” managerial e-mails have a level of formality, tone and lack of detail that is less apparent at mid-management levels and below, he says. Cheesy quotes, smiley faces and joke mails are more prevalent at lower management levels, where correspondence is more task-based and e-mailers allow themselves to let off steam.

Duh??? ;-{0

By the way, since I’m married to a graduate of that fine school of management and I know that some of the regular readers of this weblog are current students or alumni of that fine institution, I will refrain from any cheesy quotes or jokes about someone who believes reading someone’s e-mail provides a window into anything other than what the e-mail says. I’d just be letting off steam, anyway…and that’s so “task-based” and lower management.

More squishy math — from Music City: Here’s an article from today’s Tennessean about music sales in 2005. The reader has to go 18 paragraphs into the story to discover that the sales statistics do not include music sold through Wal-Mart. Wouldn’t you think a research methodology that ignores the 800 lb. gorilla marketing channel for Nashville-produced music would not be the appropriate statistic to gauge the performance of Nashville-produced music. Apparently not.

(via: Jeff Cornwall, who thinks the cluelessness (my word, not his — he’s much more polite) being displayed by executives on Music Row, means this is a good time for Nashville entrepreneurs.)

Technorati Tags: nashville

What Om says: Om (blogging from CES) on the challenge facing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) — and the opportunity for those who solve it by thinking like those of us who are customers:

“The silos of VoIP are going to come and haunt the industry eventually, especially those who are banking on VoIM. But then it is a perfect opportunity for one smart entrepreneur, someone with a devotion to consumer and ease of use to build a “Trillian” or “Adium” of VoIP.”

For the record, Hammock Publishing has used VoIP since 2001 — a PBX-like system from 3 Com, not something like Skype. If one of the Hammock alumni who set it up and who read this blog want to explain the system, feel free to explain what the system is. My only directive for interoperabilty back then was, when I pick up the phone and dial a number, anyone with a phone needs to be able to answer it.

My “interoperability” complaints now have to do with wanting the video features of iChat/iSight to work with the non-Mac world. It is the most amazing technology I have that I can’t use (with ease and quality of service) with someone outside my Mac-silo. I wish Steve Jobs would think like Steve Jobs (borrowing Om’s words) and offer a Windows version of iChat/iSight. (Or, if someone has found a free, easy-for-a-non-geek-to-understand, dependable Mac-Windows videoconference bridge that works as automagically as the iSight/iChat combo, let me know.)

Technorati Tags: apple, isight, ichat, puppy, voip

Squishy math: Someone else out there is noticing that reporters and statistics are typically not a good mix. I’m liking The Audit, from the folks at Columbia Journalism Review. I especially like that “squishy math” term.

Technorati Tags: statistics