Reality Me

"Murphy was an optimist!"

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Google’s Voice Search June 17, 2011 10:49 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Programming, Software, Technology

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I think I’ve seen this and never paid any mind to it. How long Google had voice search on Chrome?

Google Wave Invites and Reciprocation October 4, 2009 10:44 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Communications, Technology

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Wow! Mention "Google Wave invite" er…nomination or simply "I have a Google Wave account" and you have friends coming out of the woodwork that you never knew you had! Actually that word friend is fuzzy in meaning to me in this new age of social networking. I mean, most of the people who have begged me for an invitation to Google Wave are people I’ve never heard of. And not one, not one!, has offered me so much as a steak dinner in exchange for the invite…er, nomination. People! These things are going for $80 on eBay.

So who should get the 8 invites that came with my account? Well.. no one else because I’ve given all mine out. But who should have received them? My clients. See, Google Wave is about collaboration. At least that is my take on it. So, to get an invite from me, you should have said, "Doug, I know you have PHP and CF skills. Hook me up on Google Wave and let’s run a small project through this together." That’s call equitable plus it uses the tool as is designed. Instead I feel like I’ve largely been approached by strangers wanting to declare "I have a Google Wave account before anyone else. My penis is large!"

Now let’s talk about these invites Unlike GMail where Google genuinely offered invitations that allowed me to instantly bring someone else into the project, Google Wave is offering nominations. (Btw, I still have 99 invitations to GMail if anyone needs one and those are free!) If a nomination is truly a nomination, then the more of these that you get, the faster you will get to the front of the line. If you want to test this theory and have invitations available, contact my wife @cathymccaughan and send her an invite..er, nomination, and let’s drive her to the front of the line. I have seen no documentation that indicates 10 invites..er, nominations, will get you to the line faster than one but it seems sensible to me. We could start a Wave about this but you’ll need an invite..er, nomination first.

Who got my invites? My invitations went out to friends, family and clients with whom I may actually collaborate. If you didn’t get one, that means 1) that maybe I added you to my nomination list and your invite just hasn’t gone out yet or 2) I simply ran out of invites..er, nominations before I got to you. My apologies.

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Becoming a Google Advertising Professional August 19, 2009 8:50 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Technology

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Today I’m going to learn more about Google Adwords, tweak my current Adwords campaigns, and study for the GAP exam.

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Becoming a Google Adwords Professional August 13, 2009 10:26 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Programming, Technology

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In 2000 or 2001, I was working with a company that needed an advertisement campaign manager. I stayed awake for fours days straight drinking gallons of coffee and taking only power naps to write an ad campaign manager from scratch using ColdFusion and MS SQL. This was before the days of keywords so instead ads were organized by categories. Each ad could be categorized and subcategorized. Campaigns could be scheduled for date ranges with multiple ads meeting IAB industry standards and the particular place on the page could be dynamically specified. Personally, I was pretty proud of the end product and impressed with how it turned out for being built so rapidly.

The experience of writing an ad campaign manager helped me appreciate the complexity of such an endeavor but nothing prepared me for the awe inspiring product that is Google Adwords! Prior to yesterday, I thought Google Adwords was just the name Google used for selling ads that appeared on sites of publishers using Google’s Adsense and in search results. Google’s Adwords is such a complex product that they offer a certification exam for people wanting to become Google Advertising Professionals. I spent yesterday reading, reading, and reading, and watching video after video after video to learn as much about running efficient campaigns as possible. There is definitely an art to writing an effective Adwords campaign and not wasting money.

I was going to give an overview of what I learned yesterday but I have so much more to learn and Les Jones has does an excellent job already. Read Les Jones’ post My quick advice on getting the most from Google Adwords.

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Taking Google Adwords Advice August 12, 2009 9:53 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Technology

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Today I am becoming an expert on Google Adwords campaigns. I am welcome your advice and input.

Update: Les Jones offers some sage advice and Google has an excellent Adwords Learning Center. Google even offers the ability to become a Google Advertising Professional complete with a certification exam.

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Knoxville is on the map! June 12, 2008 11:22 am

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Technology, Transportation, Travel

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Google has updated Streetviews to include Knoxville and 36 other new places. Pictures were taken around October. Expect to see Chattanooga added soon. Read more at KnoxBlab.

I’m a little disappointed at the zoomed in views. They seem intentionally blurred. I guess Google is trying to avoid those incidental upskirts (okay, that’s a thong showing not an upskirt), revealing marijuana plants, and preemptively avoiding privacy complaints of people claiming the car looked in their windows.

Things that will no longer be seen in Street View are:

Hi-resolution imagery
Peopleâ€™s faces
Previous Street Views of hi-resolution Street View.

Those things were giving Google lots of trouble, so all imagery is now lower resolution.

[Source, StreetViewFun]

That’s a shame. I hope the complainers are happy now. I really liked the high resolution zooms and Google had a process for fixing any "embarrassing" captures. I feel like the end-product is a little devalued now.

Update: John McNair says the servers are pretty loaded right now.

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Knoxville Street Views Happening Now October 30, 2007 10:15 pm

Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Gadgets, Of Interest, Privacy, Technology, Touchy Subjects, Transportation, Travel

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Narration with additional commentary (note: since this was ad libbed I misspoke and called the antenna on top of the car "a satellite" when I intended to say "a satellite uplink" or "satellite antennae):

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Put your best lawns on! A California company is driving around Knoxville taking pictures of your neighborhood for Google Street Views or a competitor. I saw one of these cars zoom through my cove a few weeks ago and I wasn’t quick enough to strike an interesting pose. I was also unhappy with the state of my lawn and porch but oh well. So, will Google catch you peeing on the side of the road? Getting a ticket? Breaking into a house? Growing pot? Or just showing off your favorite thong? (see also). Concerned about privacy?