Russ White Archives - Page 143 of 164

Percentage Driven: Should IP Telephony Die?

percentage-driven Is IP Telephony dead? “When a technology market stops growing, it’s dead” — this is the call and mantra of the technology world. Since we live in a percentage driven world, the first question we seem to ask is, “what story do the percentages tell?” Tom raises the counterpoint — it doesn’t matter if the market is growing or not, there’s still a huge need for phones on desks. Who is right?

But I think this entire percentage driven thing points to a problem in our technology culture. Let me tell you a story…

We have a dog. A black and white (black with white spots as my daughter tells me, because his nose is black) English Cocker Spaniel. With black spots in his white spots. Spaniels, if you’re not familiar with them, are balls of energy. They never really “grow up” — not really, anyway. The most sedate Spaniel breed in the world is a Clumber, and they’re not what you’d call “down” personalities. Now, when we first brought this little bundle of energy home, we weighed him on a regular basis. At some point, he slowed down in gaining weight, and eventually he stopped gaining weight altogether. Continue reading

Yokohama

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Security ‘net: Social Media & Narratives

I have a rather motley collection of links this week roaming over security, social media, and algorithms. First up is three interesting reads on social media, some of which isn’t very technical, but it’s tangential to technology, so I still get to post them here. Since beginning work in earnest on a PhD in philosophy, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to stories in this realm, and thinking about how these things impact us as people and our culture at large.

First up, a prediction that Facebook is going to die because it’s a “garbage dump.” I’m not a huge user of Facebook, so I really don’t pay attention to what goes on there (which is probably why if you’ve tried to friend me there, I’ve not answered — I rarely look at requests, and almost never approve them).

It’s sort of like going to your junk drawer to find the nail clippers, and rifling through old receipts, coupons, paper clips. Instead of fetching your clippers, which you know are in the back, you occupy yourself momentarily with what’s in your drawer and why it’s there.

It’s important for communication channels to keep their signal to noise ratio Continue reading

Take them seriously — you could change the world

We often think that because we’re engineers, squirreled away in the basement suite (we used to have a fireproof suit hanging in the basement elevator as a little joke on the IT world at one job), we can’t have a huge impact on people. Or maybe it’s because you don’t think you’re famous enough — you don’t have a blog, several books published, multiple speaking engagements, and you don’t work for some big vendor. Whatever the reason for thinking you don’t — or shouldn’t — have an impact in someone’s life, let me say this.

You’re wrong.

The impact of one person can hardly be underestimated; from a book I read recently, for instance:

I turned and walked out of his office, closing the door with the characteristic rattle of the frosted glass pane. Though I could not have put it into words then, I was a different person from the one who had walked into that office ten minutes earlier. A person for whom I had the highest regard had taken me seriously. If he thought I was worthy of an hour of his time every week, then just maybe I was worth something. -Michael Card, The Walk

The Continue reading