Upoc polls shows split views on Barack speech
Upoc subscribers can opt-in to a poll group. This group asks the user base their opinions on a wide range of topics. This week, a poll inquired about the recent speech made by Barack Obama on race relations.|
· Explained everything
|
25%
|
|
· Explained nothing
|
47%
|
|
· Satisfied
|
28%
|
split between a positive response ("Explained everything" and "Satisfied") and the negative choice ("Explained nothing"). Since two of the three possible answers are positive, I would have to admit that the poll structure had a positive bias. With that bias and the significance that this speech has been given by the campaigns and the media, our result would clearly indicate that this issue will not fade away in the near future, and that more explanation from the Obama camp will be necessary.
Always Bring Your Wireless Stuff
While I was on the plane to the West Coast, I had the honor to be sitting next to a distinguished public figure. Since I want to honor his privacy, I will not say who he was. We had a brief discussion as we observed that he was reading the Wall Street Journal print edition and I was reading it on the Kindle. I tried to demonstrate the coolness of the Kindle and he was mildly intrigued. For the next 5 hours of flight time, he devoured his WSJ, ripping out many pages, taking copious notes on the torn articles, and filing then in a folder. Try that on a Kindle!
I rented a car from National and wanted to try their in-car navigation system and compare it to my GPS-enabled Google Maps and the VZW Navigator application. The Street Pilot from Garmin behaved like a bad "Saturday Night Live" sketch; it took many minutes to find its satellites and thus, its location. It barked out directions in quick succession: "Turn Right, Turn Right, Recalculating, Turn Left, Turn Left" -- the screen would have an arrow pointing to the right and the voice would say, "Turn left." It was both sad and amusing. 
We finished our meetings and settled into the Continental Presidents Club at the airport to wait a couple of hours for our flight. I connected to the free WiFi network that Continental provides and started to work. The problem was that the effective bandwidth I got through their WiFi was clocked in a not-so-impressive 20 KB/sec. 20KB/sec -- that is so last century!Good Hockey, Good Wireless
It always strikes me as somewhat amazing how much SMS and MMS services have seamlessly integrated themselves with mainstream activities. As an example (and no surprise to those 
who really know me!), I will use this afternoon's Ranger/Bruin hockey game as an example. Before you send me lots of comments and e-mail pointing out that what I really wanted to write this blog installment about was the thrilling game, I plead 100% guilty. I will try to at least give some lip service to mobile Internet services while I carry on about the thriller in the "World's most famous arena."
The Rangers and Bruins started the day separated by just one point in the standings, with the Broadway Blues holding the advantage. The Eastern Conference is very tight this year, with only 6 points separating the top 7 teams!
The teams traded excellent scoring chances in the first period with the Rangers testing the Boston goalposts, back boards and protective netting, as much as they challenged the Bruin goaltender. But with no pucks finding the twine of either goal, the period ended scoreless.
The second period was similar to the first, with the intensity turned up several notches. Jaromir Jagr powered by the Bruin defense on three occasions for close-in tries, denied on each by Jay Auld, the Bruin net minder. The Bruins finally did put some sustained pressure on the Rangers, with Henrik up to the challenge. The second intermission came with no goals.
A special shout-out at this point must go to a Blue Shirt faithful in the "Blue Section." With exactly 1 minute and 5 seconds left in the period, he yelled out, "Hey, how much time is left in the period?" The announcer of course then followed with "One minute left in the period." The fan responded with a loud "Thank You!" 19,000 people laughed. At least the tension of the game was broken for a bit.
The third period was frenetic. Both goalies made acrobatic saves that seemed to defy the laws of physics. At one point, Sean Avery made a great power move to the net and flicked the puck off the left post -- groan! Both teams tried the old tried-and-true method of pushing the defenders and the goalie, along with the puck, into the net. In both cases, the referees were close at hand to restore order.
With about 7 minutes left in the game, Scott Gomez completely undressed a Bruin defensemen, stealing the puck in the offensive slot area. Gomez came in on Auld totally uncontested ... and missed.
Both teams traded some good scoring chances in the 5-minute overtime, but it was obvious that this one would be settled "Mano a Mano" -- with a shootout. After regular and OT play, both goalies had turned away a combined 64 shots. That's a whole season of shots for a soccer team!
(If you've stuck it out this far in the blog, I promise to have something about mobile services at the end!)
(Also, if you've stuck it out this long, there is a good chance we share some DNA!)
The shootout -- a best of three -- was as nerve- racking as it gets in a big game. Both teams missed their first shots. Nigel Dawes, a Ranger rookie, took the second shot and ringed it off the left post and into the back of the net! After nearly 3 hours, a puck finally entered the net! The Bruins missed their final two shots and as Henrik stopped David Krejci, bedlam broke out at the Garden.
Playoff-atmosphere hockey in mid-March. Very nice.!
If you want to see video highlights of the game, follow this link:
http://rangers.nhl.tv/team/console?hlg=20072008,2,1037
So here is the wireless angle on this joyous day:
At that start of the game, I updated my "microblog" with my whereabouts and the status 
of the game. During the game there were three wireless polls taken of the audience. I sent an MMS picture of my daughter to be displayed on the arena's Jumbo-Tron. At one point, my daughter got lost in the arena (actually, she knew where she was; I didn't). She texted me her location, which was back at our seats. ( I can put this in here because my wife does not read this blog!) And lastly, this entire blog was written on my BlackBerry on the train ride home. A very full day indeed!
Wireless for the Attention Deficit Crowd
As my loyal readers will know, I spend a fair amount of time commuting to and from Manhattan. Part of my commute is via NJ Transit trains. During this one hour per day, I try to find ways to either be productive or amuse myself. Since I carry a wide array of wireless devices, I get to try out different modes of time-killing. I also get to observe how my fellow travelers deal with the drudgery and boredom of train travel.
Number 3:
iPhone
BlackBerry gets top marks obviously for e-mail. The Java game capability, with a large screen and trackball has many possibilities for entertaining distractions. I became a Sudoku addict/expert in less than a week on my BlackBerry! There are some OK video options, although much inferior to the iPhone. As long as I don't want to listen to music, I prefer the BlackBerry for the mix of work productivity and entertainment.
Latest comments