I finally “get” the new Web 2.0 world of blogs, wikis and ticket trackers. Specifically, I understand how they help us run our business. It has taken me almost two years to adjust to this new way of capturing, organizing and prioritizing information. Actually, the process has been very helpful to illustrate how difficult habits are to change . . . and I am very comfortable with technology. Here’s how we have evolved.
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Archive for March, 2008
Fajitas and Mean Margaritas: The Olympics aren’t always about the games!
It was a fantastically fun evening for those who gathered at the Wiredrive studio on Tuesday night. Wiredrivers paired off to put the smack down during Wiredrive Olympics. Teams unleashed their strong competitive streaks through head to head matches of Wii tennis, darts, ping-pong and the notorious verbal game truth or lie. Fajitas where barbecued and margaritas were brewed by our in house chef Mitch Bassett and event coordinator Becca Mann. Everyone enjoyed the sporting events whether spectating or participating. It was clearly a night of celebration for designers Josh June and Adam Portilla as they collected the grand prize at the end of the evening. Ramy Rahimi and Claire Cottrell, our newest Wiredriver as of April 14th 2008, collected second place prizes after their defeat in the final matches of ping-pong and Wii bowling. Wiredrivers ended the night with conversation and The Call of Duty.
Cheers!
Becca
It was party time at the Bay Shore lanes in Santa Monica, CA. Wiredrivers and Anonymous Content got their “game face“ on and displayed their skills in the art of bowling. Some really great bowlers were shining on the wood floors that evening. It was a great way to relieve the tension and stress accumulated from the work week. It seems that most were quiet enthusiastic about sporting the “groovy shoes“ that we’ve all come to endear over the years. It was the perfect time to kick back a few brewski’s, laugh (because no one looks hot throwing a bowling ball around), and get to know our fellow Wiredrivers while having an old fashioned good time.
To view more photos click here
Cheers,
Becca
It’s fascinating to watch my two daughters growing up as digital natives in a time where all main forms of media and communication delivery are finally growing up digital as well. In their world, all television can be stopped, recalled or displayed how ever they want – “Saturday morning cartoons” doesn’t mean anything to them. Cell phones make phone calls, take pictures and send them via email (and they certainly don’t have curly-que cables coming from them like the grandparent’s phones). Computers can help you talk to and see your family hundreds of miles away or let you chat as a penguin to anyone, where-ever they are. One of the most heartbreaking experiences was to see my older daughter’s virtual penguin house get deleted by mistake, which caused significant actual distress.
Likewise, I’m watching changes in airline movie systems, VOIP phone systems and wireless internet services grow and mature, often taking one step forward and two steps back. We flew to Salt Lake City on a airplane outfitted with a digital personal entertainment system – DirecTV, movies, songs and even drink ordering. Everything looked great, until we saw Tux the Penguin (NOT a club penguin character) show up and watched all the monitors reboot, twice. And still half the plane had nothing to watch as their systems were stuck in a bunch of sum checks and driver updates. Yes, once the system gets up and running, it is far superior to the “movie of the month” we have been used to… but I’ve personally observed that 50% of the flights I’ve been on with these systems (usually made by Panasonic Aero) crash and need to reboot. Someday, it will be solid but today is not that day.
The same experience is occurring with all flavor of phones. We have the really cool Cisco phones you see in every counter terrorist office on TV. The VOIP phones work amazingly well… until they don’t. Features we have taken for granted, like clear drop-free phone calls, now rely on both the quality of your internet connection AND the connection of your caller. Sure, you can now do high-falutin’ voice-activated voicemail checking. You just may have to ask someone to repeat themselves over again. It’s even worse at home – we switched to a VOIP phone, so now when our cable modem goes out, so does our telephone service. To top it off, I need to call tech support on my overly powerful iPhone, which proceeds to drop the call just as I get through all the voice prompts and finally reach an actual person.
Wireless Internet is the newest frontier, at least here in the States. My experience with an AT&T HSUPDA high speed wireless card has been challenging at best. First, each time I updated my OS (OSX 10.4.10 to 10.4.11 to OSX 10.5.1) my connection software changed and took many attempts to connect. Catching a signal has been tricky too – inside a hotel room, at an office or at the airport, I start off by the window and get the strongest signal that I can. Then I walk back to the desk, chair or bed and surf away. My favorite is searching for 3G networks in San Francisco, the home of technology, and only finding 2.5G connections… which is like dial-up speeds.
Even with all the hiccups, I will never go “back” to the old way of doing things. Like my children, my “new tech” tools are still growing up.
Green is good. The world is crumbling. Why can’t we all just stop polluting? By now every one of us is aware on some level of how our super-sized consumption habits are negatively affecting our personal places, our local environment and our entire planet. I’ve been the target of eco-friendly messages my entire life, but it wasn’t until recently that I finally got it.
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