Jason’s Random Thoughts

Why is it that I can never find the right birthday card anywhere?

Today is my Reiko’s birthday and, despite what she might think, she’s still just as young and beautiful as she was the day we met.  But why can’t I find a nice card that says just as much?

Before coming to Japan I had scoured several Hallmark’s and other gift stores for the perfect birthday card to no avail.  After arriving, I looked everywhere (when I wasn’t being watched) for the right card, but again came up empty.  Even the online cards don’t seem to really say much.  Perhaps this is a good thing … because it means that I often wind up making cards for the people I care about.

The image on the left is from the card I designed.  She loves dogs and we’ll probably have a house full of puppies before too long.  You can click on the image for the full res version, but I kept the personal message out.  Those words are for her, not the whole world
Happy birthday, Reiko!

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Less than two weeks ago, BlogRush made a rather large splash in the Blogosphere and it seemed that everyone was promoting the widget.  After reading about the service on DoshDosh, I decided that if it was good enough for the Double-D, it was good enough for me.  However, after almost a fortnight in operation, I’m not seeing any value from the service.

Here are some numbers from my site:

Forgive me if I’m not blown away.

I realize that my site is just a drop of water in comparison to the ocean that is the internet, but surely there would be at least one click from someone … right?

The BlogRush widget seems to be on almost every blog I visit, and so far, nobody has said anything great about it.  I’ll give the widget a full 30 days to prove itself.  If the count is still a big fat goose-egg afterwards, then it’ll disappear.  Is anyone else seeing this problem?

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Since the beginning of civilization, humans have searched for a reliable way to keep track of the time. In the earliest days, months, seasons and years were tracked by careful monitoring of the phases of the moon. Later, the sun and stars were also used to help early people track the passing of time. The Sumerians used the sundial to divide days into two-hour segments. The Egyptians created a device called Cleopatra’s needle to divide their days into two-hour segments while the ancient Romans devised a way of dividing time into night and day. A pressing need for more precise measurements led to the invention of the water clock and then the hourglass. These inventions were limited as they relied on water and sand, respectively, to function. The search continued to search for a way of tracking time independent of the seasons or nature. In 1582, Galileo discovered that a pendulum could be used to track time. He drew the first designs for a grandfather clock, though he did not build it. Finally, in 1656, Christiaan Huygens built the first known grandfather clock, putting Galileo’s discovery to use. Though the clock did not keep accurate time, it was a major breakthrough in timekeeping technology. Through the years, various inventors tried to improve on the design, but with little luck. Finally, in 1670, William Clement discovered that the clocks worked better with a longer pendulum. Of course, this required a taller clock. Clement named his newly designed clocks long-case clocks. This was the predecessor of the grandfather clocks that we know today.  In 1875, Henry Work wrote the song “My Grandfather’s Clock” and the name stuck and finally, after many years in the making, grandfather clocks were born. So why the history lesson, you ask?  Well, I’ve been fascinated by time for as long as I can remember, and lately I’ve been thinking about the grandfather clock that has been in my family for … well … ever.  The constant ticking of a grandfather clock is quite satisfying.  It’s a constant reminder that the world continues, even though we might have stopped for a moment, and the rich sound of the chimes give us a quick reference to the time of day so long as we’re within earshot. Now that Reiko and I are starting to look for our first home, we’re also thinking about what furnishings we might purchase.  A little while ago I had found the perfect Howard-Miller clock, but never had the room in the small apartments.  So long as we can find a decent sized home, I think the time has come to purchase a "family clock". That said, Reiko and I will be moving several times in our lives, potentially in both Canada and Japan.  Most people I know with grandfather clocks have lived in the same house for 20+ years and will likely stay in that home for the rest of their lives.  So how should I move the clock?  Should I move the clock?  Or would it be better to just wait until Reiko and I have retired to make the purchase? Luckily, no.  Grandfatherclocksblog has a solid article about how we should prepare clocks for transportation. Now the next part of the equation … getting Reiko to agree on a grandfather clock …

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By now, everyone will have heard about Google’s plans to lay a nice fat multi-terabit optical cable across the Pacific Ocean.  Personally, I think this is great for both Google and their target market:  us.  But rather than discuss Google’s plan to take over the world while making it look like their really our friend (I’ll leave that to expert haters and people with more research time and resources on their hands), I’d rather talk about what this means for the future of Google’s target market … again, us.

Twenty years ago people looked at Microsoft the same way they do Google today.  Lots of companies and technologically savvy people were afraid of what this budding company of incredibly intelligent programmers with their strong-minded leaders would do to their perception of the world and, despite crying foul every time Microsoft did something right, these people would instead focus on the few mistakes made or put a bad spin on anything that they were jealous for not thinking of first.

That said, before the flames and hate mail starts pouring in, I’m not defending Microsoft, here.  I’m merely pointing out some similarities in the two companies when they reached 10 years in age.

Microsoft started out by offering an operating system they bought for next to nothing, and then went around to vendors telling them that they wanted MS-DOS.  Application developers learned how to program against this DOS platform and made quite a bit of money, while Microsoft made money right along with them.  Google has done the same with their incredible services and API.  We’ve learned how to program with the Google API, and some people have earned a nice chunk of change over the years.

Microsoft didn’t stop with operating systems, though.  They branched off into Operating Environments (Windows 1.0 through to WinME), other Operating Systems (WindowsNT to the current Vista), productivity software (Office, Money, etc.), games, development platforms, database engines … the list goes on and on, but it didn’t happen all overnight.  Instead, we had a love-hate relationship with Microsoft while wishing there were other options that were just as versatile.

The same can be said about Google.  They didn’t stop with their search engine.  They branched off into streaming video, satellite imagery, navigation systems, newsgroups, blog hosting, desktop applications, translation services … the list is just as extensive as Microsoft’s.  The biggest difference, though, is that most tech people love Google.

The two companies share many similarities, and the one I can appreciate the most is the opportunities they give to people who mistrust their services.

Microsoft haters flocked to the Mac or Linux in droves, allowing some incredible development and enhancements to blossom from both.  Where would Linux be today if it wasn’t for people mistrusting Microsoft so much in the last 15 years?  I’ll admit that Linux’s popularity and innovations are not 100% thanks to people who dislike Microsoft, but it’s certainly helped Linux claim a few percentage points of the OS market.

Now the same is being said about the all powerful Google.  They’ve ventured into so many areas that there are more people turning their backs on the G and working with lesser-known platforms, adding innovations and word-of-mouth to these services.  Several months ago there was a post in Wired about how the search engine market was fracturing (I wish I could find it again), and that these engines had to find new ways of attracting hits and gaining market share while fighting off newer engines such as ChaCha, KartOO, Quintura and Zuula.

Massive companies that dominate several markets aren’t always things to be feared.  They often breed misguided contempt, greed, jealousy and ego just enough that people start building newer solutions that meet or exceed the needs of people.  Heck, this is how Google got their start.  How many of us were exclusively using Yahoo search or Altavista in 1998?  How many of us still use those engines?  The same is said about operating systems.  How many of us were using Microsoft solutions in 1998, and how many of us now use other platforms?

Personally, I’m glad to hear that Google is buying up so many companies, laying so much cable, and venturing into markets such as wireless internet and cell phones with free services.  Eventually, this will piss off enough people in companies and online communities to come up with something even better and, at the end of the day, there will only be one real winner.

Us.

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The world is full of symbols, and finding the one that best represents us can be incredibly difficult.  We usually already have an idea in mind about what we want for our logos, but lack the resources to make the idea take proper shape without getting a graphics designer involved.  Luckily, for all the Do-It-Yourselfer’s out there, there’s LogoYes.

Logos help promote our brand, and the wrong logo can be disasterous.  The key is to develop one that is professional, memorable and adaptable for all your sales tools (pens, business cards, letterheads, etc).  That said, not all logos fit this mold.  While some might look good, they might not be the best suited for your brand identity.  LogoYes helps by ensuring our logos are easy to remember, work well in black & white, and resizes well.

Using the Logo Creator, you can quickly design your logo and get high resolution files of the new brand image.  By creating the brand ourselves, we eliminate the middle-man and save the frustrations occasionally involved with translating ideas into shapes.  Once we’re happy with our logo, we can download high-resolution files and even order postcards, brochures, business cards, websites or a combination of services.  I’ve worked with several logo designers over the years (usually when creating splash screens for computer programs), and this web-based solution is one of the easiest.

This post was sponsored by LogoYes.

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