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	Phil's Blogservations Sunday, August 29, 2004 Posted by philgomes 10:31 PM Workin' Sunday Workin' Sunday Well... I had the choice between a (more) insane Monday morning or slicing off a bit of my Sunday evening. Decided to go for the latter this time around so, thus, here we are. For those of you who are curious, this is what The Near-Holy Temple Of The Evil Genius (otherwise known as my home office) looks like at night: Those lights in the distance there make me want to call up the folks at Coast To Coast. Thursday, August 26, 2004 Posted by philgomes 2:35 PM John Kerry, Media Philosopher John Kerry, Media Philosopher I called the media afterward and asked them why and the answer was, from one of the networks, it doesn't have to be identified, "because, is, new[s] business is really partly entertainment business visually, you see, and a press conference like that is not visual." Of course, we don't have the position of power to get our ideas out. I said, "If I take some crippled veterans...to the White House and we chain ourselves to the gates, will we get coverage?" "Oh, yes, we will cover that." — April 22, 1971: John Kerry comes face-to-face with the well-worn axiom "If it bleeds, it leads." Link courtesy of James Taranto. Wednesday, August 25, 2004 Posted by philgomes 12:21 AM The Washington Times And Gomes' Law Of Storage The Washington Times And Gomes' Law Of Storage The Gomes Law Of Storage, crafted during my sysadmin days and refined during my agency-side tenure with Phoenix Technologies, stated "The death of the floppy disk drive is always five years from today." Alas, as years went by, it seemed that the humble 3.5" floppy was destined to persist as a parasitic element on the humble PC. Products like Iomega's ZIP disk became complementary to the floppy. The CD-RW never quite replaced it. And the LS-120 format? Remember that? Probably not. It's even less likely that you ever held an LS-120 disk in your hands. But now we have the USB memory keychain and, with it, a collapsing mortality window for Gomes' Law Of Storage. Thanks to ubiquitous USB ports in PCs and even non-PC devices, the contents of several dozen floppies can be crammed into half a pinky finger's worth of plastic. Now, for real this time... The floppy is doomed. So much so, in fact, that I once noticed that Dell would penalize you $20 if you burdened their finely tuned supply chain with a $5 floppy drive. (For that same $20, though, you could get a 16MB USB key from the same online store.) I own two such devices. One of them I bought on impluse in 2002 at Fry's Electronics. It has 64MB of storage and, handily carabinered to my keychain, it has saved me numerous times. The other is a 256MB key I got from the lovely folks at Forbes for participating in a 2003 conference. I store archived family photos on it. I used to wear it around my neck and under my shirt all the time until Erin, having enriched my life in so many other ways before and since, was kind enough to inform me that my geek credentials were otherwise just-fine-thank-you and, thus, wearing that blue plastic fob around my neck really was this close to donning a Klingon suit and jumping a Furry in front of City Hall. But I digress... You're asking where this is all coming from, and I'm getting to that... Doing my usual industry news scanning, I came across this piece in The Washington Times. A reader, reacting to a column by Mark Kellner about a particular brand of USB key suggested that such products would be great to use around the office. Alas, the office disagreed: The IT director said the device would be too handy for corporate espionage or, lacking virus protection, the delivery of malicious viruses or worms into a corporate network. The reader was confronted with a stark response: Not only will his company not purchase USB Flash Drives for employees, but the IT department will "craft a policy for management approval wherein the mere possession of a personally owned [USB flash drive] device on company premises may be grounds for termination of employment." So, it's come to this: "Use sneakernet, lose your job!" I hate to break it to sysadmins everywhere but, if an employee wants to get data out of your organization, he or she will do it. Make a policy banning USB keys, and Fred from accounting (who is already pissed off at his benefits reduction) will start making regular trips to the roof during his coffee break to rendezvous with his trained carrier pidgeon. The only real solution, all things considered, is making it very clear that it's the company's network and, as such, the company has every right to record and log who touches what data, how often, and where it goes. If credible forensics yield incontrovertible evidence of corporate espionage, then the corporation needs to punish the offending employee. Blaming a technology that has the potential for misuse is the easy and ineffective way to answer the more difficult problem of actually addressing the human equation. Mr. Kellner ends his piece, as I will similarly end this posting, with sage advice: How might you gain the advantage in such situations? Become an "evangelist" inside your circle for such new technology. Marshal your facts, get the information together, and see how you can present such ideas to senior management to win their approval. Monday, August 23, 2004 Posted by philgomes 11:23 AM On Early And First Adopters On Early And First Adopters ExtremeTech's Loyd Case makes an important distinction between early adopters and first adopters — a difference that tech PR folks need to take to heart since the terms are often (and incorrectly) treated as interchangeable. So what makes an early adopter? First off, I should explain the difference between a "first adopter" and "early adopter." I'm definitely not a first adopter. First adopters are often willing to take major risks to try out—or even invent—something new. Most people think first adopters are totally nuts. However, early adopters often notice first adopters and go, "hmm… gotta keep an eye on that." Early adopters are the people who set the trends, while first adopters are the guys with the arrows in their backs. Early adopters get the bandwagon rolling, and when it starts to get crowded, start looking for the next big thing. For my part, I'm an early adopter in the data-consuming sense (I love reading about new trends and developments), but I'm also a highly practical, mainstream-to-trailing-edge tech consumer (I feel no particular need to actually own the latest gadget or whatever). Example: I had my creaky Handspring Visor Deluxe for about four years before I upgraded, and it was pretty behind the state-of-the-art when I purchased it in the first place. I mean, take a look at my cellphone, placed next to a common highlighter for comparison: I used to really go for the slimmest, hippest, lose-it-in-your-couch-cushions-est phones they offered. I'm sure part of it had to do with growing up seeing Capt. Kirk crisply flip open his communicator whenever he wanted to talk to the Enterprise. And, you know what? Those delicate little phones broke. Badly. And easily. Two flip-phones from one manufacturer each gave me cracked LCD screens within their first few months of ownership. Upon seeing the first one before a briefing, one industry analyst asked "How in the hell did you do that!?!" This was right after he chided me for my non-branded (though incredibly fast and sturdy) laptop. Now I have the bulky, sturdy mobile phone you see in the picture. I went to Radio Shack and asked for the biggest, ugliest, most indestructible phone they had. They gave me the one you see in the picture, which is replete with a protected LCD and rubber-bumper sides. Don't get me wrong... I like cameraphones. A lot. I also dig smartphones like the Treo 600. I was even thinking of buying one before I opted for my new Tungsten C. (I also eBayed a case for said Tungsten, made out of very strong aircraft aluminum. Trust me... It's a necessary purchase.) The problem is, to use the old saw, "I just can't have nice things." Unless they started making the Treo 600 to military specifications, I would probably turn it into playground mulch in under a year. Anyway... The point is that there are people who are just too rough on their devices to make first- or early-adopter status financially practical. Until whatever curse I've inherited goes away, I'll count myself squarely in that category. Thursday, August 19, 2004 Posted by philgomes 6:46 PM Groovin' Groovin' I didn't use to like electronic music. And it's not like I'm some kind of purist either. It doesn't matter to me exactly how music is created, even if through a computer. After all, as guitarist Allan Holdsworth once noted, anything is "technology"...even if its a string stretch across a hole. It's just that, well, I never really gave it much of a chance beyond some of the goth music that I'm into. Anyway... My girlfriend Erin got me into Digitally Imported, a site with plenty of streams for all manner of electronic music styles. I prefer the Goa-Psy Trance channel, myself. (A preference shared by Linux wizard Tim Tuck, who was thrilled that Erin introduced me to this site.) It's great to work to, especially when I'm writing. Previously, I only used to work with jazz or classical in the background. Sometimes metal if I'm only doing filing or administrative stuff. Of course, to be courteous, I use my headphones. Anyway... Yet another look into my work environment, which I obviously have no problem sharing. Here's my main computer's desktop and here's my desktop desktop. Posted by philgomes 3:56 PM My New Toy My New Toy After about four years of a trusty Handspring Visor Deluxe, I've decided to upgrade. Thanks to some generous birthday-borne gift certificates and a deal on factory refurbed units on Amazon.Com, I'm now the proud owner of a Palm Tungsten C. (And, yes, I had my eye on it way before that movie came out.) I've downloaded Kinoma, AvantGo, Planetarium, and other apps. Does anyone out there recommend others? It already has fine mail and browser programs, which have already come in handy. Tuesday, August 17, 2004 Posted by philgomes 10:47 AM Dancin', Dancin', Dancin' Machine Dancin', Dancin', Dancin' Machine I saw this cheeky Flash ad during my regular morning newsreading and I just had to screengrab it: Well, well, well... Someone sure wants to party like it's 1999... Wednesday, August 11, 2004 Posted by philgomes 4:40 PM Calling All Grim Men With Black Suits And Earpieces Calling All Grim Men With Black Suits And Earpieces Where's the Secret Service when you need them? Seriously. Sitting Presidents (and former ones, I'd imagine) receive thousands of crank threats on their lives. The Secret Service has to investigate every single one of them. But when a marketing stunt for an RNC-timed stage play has such a threat in its very title, there can't possibly be too much detective work involved. Tasteless... Absolutely tastless... I guess these promoters believe that, if they're incapable of doing something smart, then they should do something really, really big. Posted by philgomes 11:35 AM If The Whole Web Went To Hell... If The Whole Web Went To Hell... ...I think I might get by on IMDB alone. Here's a piece in LA Weekly about this entertainment uber-site. I know... I'm an entertainment junkie from the word "go" with an encyclopedic vault of pop culture knowledge for a brain. Believe it or not, it has helped more than hurt me in my PR career. Link courtesy of MediaBistro. Posted by philgomes 10:25 AM Welcome To Footnote #99 Welcome To Footnote #99 If you're reading Dan Gillmor's We The Media and got to the "Learning By Listening" section in Chapter Four, then welcome to my humble blog. For those who haven't yet read the book, this Q&A from Wired News helps to crystallize some of the main points. The launch party at Creative Commons' new offices in SOMA was very cool. Here's a page with links to some folks who blogged their thoughts and take-aways. Wednesday, August 04, 2004 Posted by philgomes 4:24 PM Tip For Keeping Your Pitches Brief Tip For Keeping Your Pitches Brief Journalists often complain that the pitches they get are too lengthy and buzzwordy. Here's a tip: Haiku. There's someone in the analyst community with whom I've corresponded almost exclusively in Haiku since 1998. Incredibly, we get a lot done that way. Of course, your mileage will vary. Try at your own risk. Monday, August 02, 2004 Posted by philgomes 8:40 PM We're All A Little Crazy We're All A Little Crazy I needed to read this today. I found it strangely comforting, so maybe you will too. An estimated 30.8 million American adults (14.8 percent) meet standard diagnostic criteria for at least one personality disorder as defined in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), according to the results of the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) reported in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry [Volume 65:948-958]. Link courtesy of Science Blog. HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.