Dopp Juice Archive

How can I put this?

As I write this, I’m vacuuming. (Well, that’s not entirely true.)

As I write this, my home is being vacuumed, and I’m the only one home. (Well, that doesn’t feel so true, either.)

As a write this, an artificial intelligence robot is running amok in my living room, gobbling up everything in its sight. (Yes, that’s it.)

I bought an iRobot Roomba Scheduler (not an affiliate link) from Woot.com as a birthday present to myself. I set it up today and am equally impressed and entertained. It’s so cute, running around my floor going “gimme! gimme! gimme! gimme!” to all my dirt (no, it doesn’t actually have sound effects — I just feel so connected to my Roomba after the first twenty minutes that I believe we now speak the same language).

(It just found my kitchen — look at it go on the linoleum floor! How long has it been since I’ve swept over there?!)

Every creative genius has an Achilles’ heel. Housecleaning is mine. Still too stubborn to admit defeat and hire assistance for the task, I tend to just let the dirt just pile up. I can already tell that the Roomba and I are going to be great friends. This model comes with a scheduler, which means I can program it to clean every day (or less often, if I’m feeling lazy) while I’m at work. And since vacuums can’t clean under scattered laundry, this will force me to pick up more regularly, lest I anger my new AI roommate. Hey — double victory!

(Right now it’s navigating the underside of my futon, choking on electrical cords and freeing itself from the madness without crying for help.)

The other thing I’m proud of — I bought this puppy for $130 when it retails for $330. Have you heard about Woot.com yet? (If not, don’t feel bad — I just found out about it last week). It’s a geek-oriented shopping site that only sells one item per day. “One Day, One Deal” is their motto. The item is almost always super cheap and super cool. They’ve got an impressive business model:

A) Negotiate with companies for a low price on a really cool item that you can guarantee to sell a lot of in a really short period of time.

B) Build a community around a promise to provide the coolest, cheapest products on a daily basis through a really user-friendly and focused website.

C) Put non-obtrusive ads on the site.

If you’re a twitterer, you can find out about the latest buys on woot via tweets (wow, out of context, that sentence sounds really strange).

Expect a more critical review of the Roomba after I’ve played with it more. It ain’t perfect, but it’s a heckuva lot better than what I had going for me before.

David Pogue, a New York Times technology columnist (and entertaining chap), posted a great video on youtube in which he sets out to “prove” that Microsoft did not rip off Mac’s ideas when it built the new, classy Vista system. (Tech catch-up note: Vista is a new PC operating system, succeeding Windows XP, that is totally different from what the Windows user is used to getting from Microsoft. First of all, it’s prettier. Second, it’s easier for the not-so-tech-oriented to intuitively navigate and do more with. Check out the official Microsoft sales page for more info.)Being a Mac user with a knee-jerk distrust for Microsoft, I was immediately interested in the video. It promised evidence that Microsoft is truly innovative and concerned with the user experience. I was looking for reasons to like Microsoft. The video, however, was not what I expected (I’m so naive — I really should have seen this coming!). Check it out: NYT’s David Pogue on Windows VistaAnd if there was any doubt, yes, I’m still proud to be a Mac user.

I’m chilling out in the Blogger Lounge at the Web2point2 rogue unconference at the Microsoft center in downtown San Francisco… wishing you were here. And here’s your cue to demand an explanation: What’s this about Web 2.2? When did we move up from Web 2.0? Did we ever even figure out what Web 2.0 means? Is anything actually happening on the web or are we just drowning in new-tool pastel ajax overload? The answer is here. Look to the man with the jeans, t-shirt, and fancy suit coat ringing the tibetan meditation bells to signal the end of a five minute conversation you’re having with a complete stranger about what you’re most passionate about in life. It’s a gimmick.Look to the super-cute t-shirt they gave me, that looks like a Windows error message with an old-school time bomb on it. It reads: Web 2.0 has crashed, please upgrade to Web 2.2. Click OK to continue.Dude. Gimmick. Look to the registration price: $32.95, which is in total mockery of the big fancy O’Reilly Web 2.0 Conference going on simultaneously in this very city for the low, low price of $3,200.It’s all a gimmick. Look to all the new tools based on business models that have existed for hundreds of years, but are now dressed up in a drag-and-drop interfaces and use Trebuchet MS font.Let’s face it. The whole internet is just a gimmick. But I love every pixel of it. So why haven’t I been blogging much lately, you might ask? Truth be told, I’ve been existing in the so-called real world these days. I’ve taken a break from obsessive monitor-staring and am paying new attention to things like… eating… and sleeping… and (dun dun DUN!) moving my body. To top it off, I’ve been engaging in social situations where I can actually see and touch the individual I’m communicating with. I tell you, it’s amazing, the opportunities that exist when you turn off your computer. I feel like an toddler discovering she has knees. And that’s exactly why I’m here, at the Web 2.2 Gimmick Extravaganza. Their motto is: The Point is (still) the People. I think we, in the tech industry, are chronically guilty of forgetting that the internet exists for people. Not vice versa. We often think that if we build a cool tool, people will come for it. And then we’re disappointed when they don’t. That’s what this conference is about: remembering why we’re here.And if it takes a handful of elaborate gimmicks to remind us that we exist outside of bandwidth, so be it. Gimmick on. The internet is a gimmick. People are not. Remember: You have knees.TAGGED! web22(p.s. Cheers to Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells for pulling this incredible mishmash of tech geek collaboration off without a hitch!)