Sunday, May 13, 2007
History and Technology
I've been thinking a great deal about how best to organize and access history-related content (or any -related content) on the web and it's clear that metadata is the key to a working and efficient database application. Furthermore, it's essential to have a smart search interface such as that developed by google to both anticipate what a user might be looking for AND suggest alternate (sometimes correct :-) ) spellings and/or topics. Someone in a meeting last week suggested like the Amazon interface.
Speaking of Amazon, if you haven't been keeping up with their business model, it's worth nothing that they have gone well beyond books and even other consumer products. Now, they are leasing out server space and actual physical space at Amazon shipping facilities to smaller vendors. Jeff Bezos mentioned that he knew if his business needed these parts of the business chain, others did, too. And, he could make money off of providing them for smaller companies at much lower prices for the companies in question but at a significant source of profit for Amazon. I only wished I had realized this before their last stock price spike based on their reporting said news.
This week if full of phone conferences. Just 3 weeks until the family get together and the whirl of summer teacher workshops. At least this year, I didn't lose track of the end of June and the July 4 holiday. Last year, I added a week of activities without the requisite number of 7 days with which to do those things and ended up on the road WAY too much all at once.
This year is deciding whether or not to attend another high school reunion. They are a bit anti-climatic given that they have been held every 5 years and I have gone every time. Time will tell.
My new vehicle starts going through the production line on Monday so it should be here within about 2 weeks since it's just down in Arlington, TX, and doesn't have to jump on a train to get here. I'm glad I decided on the Tahoe Z71. I was considering the Yukon Denali - but my neighbor 3 doors down just bought one and I like to be a bit more unique - especially in not having the same vehicle as my retired neighbor. :-)
Speaking of Amazon, if you haven't been keeping up with their business model, it's worth nothing that they have gone well beyond books and even other consumer products. Now, they are leasing out server space and actual physical space at Amazon shipping facilities to smaller vendors. Jeff Bezos mentioned that he knew if his business needed these parts of the business chain, others did, too. And, he could make money off of providing them for smaller companies at much lower prices for the companies in question but at a significant source of profit for Amazon. I only wished I had realized this before their last stock price spike based on their reporting said news.
This week if full of phone conferences. Just 3 weeks until the family get together and the whirl of summer teacher workshops. At least this year, I didn't lose track of the end of June and the July 4 holiday. Last year, I added a week of activities without the requisite number of 7 days with which to do those things and ended up on the road WAY too much all at once.
This year is deciding whether or not to attend another high school reunion. They are a bit anti-climatic given that they have been held every 5 years and I have gone every time. Time will tell.
My new vehicle starts going through the production line on Monday so it should be here within about 2 weeks since it's just down in Arlington, TX, and doesn't have to jump on a train to get here. I'm glad I decided on the Tahoe Z71. I was considering the Yukon Denali - but my neighbor 3 doors down just bought one and I like to be a bit more unique - especially in not having the same vehicle as my retired neighbor. :-)
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