On this episode of Spark: Distracting clowns, earbud etiquette, and the dark side of the cloud. Click below to listen or download the MP3 (runs 54:00).
Play audio:
- Dustin Randall and Ira Hyman test attentiveness
- Steven Yantis studies our brains’ abilities to multitask
- Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty explains capital letters
- Wanja Oberhof publishes personalized newspapers with niiu
- Spark listener Gary Liao wonders about earbud etiquette
- Hannah Classen talks to customer service workers about using your cell phone while ordering
- Google could add real-time advertisements to Street View
- Nic Mitham explains advertising in virtual worlds
- Alisa Palmer invites invites theatregoers behind the scenes of Cloud 9 online
- Danny Sullivan on the dark side of the cloud (full interview)
This episode features Creative Commons music and sound effects:
- Countdown by Corsica_S
- “Wadidyusay?” by Zap Mama
- “Tilt” by Cadillac Jones
- “queen_street.flac” by Corsica_S
- “part of my dejection” by adamned.age
- Anybody here.mp3 by alphahog
- “Love With A Capital You” (1939) by Woody Herman & His Orchestra
- “Satellite & Drums” by CapoFrets
- “DC 3000” by Thievery Corporation
- “While We Walk” by Antony Raijekov
- “Electron Map” by Chad Crouch
- “Go ‘n’ Drop” by Antony Raijekov
- “DLDN Instrumental” by St. Paul
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[Original image by chaosinjune]
Congrats on 100 episodes (and only getting better as they go by). I listen often to the podcasts, sometimes 2-3x and they never fail to inform and entertain. I am happy as well about the new Spark Plus feature as well. Here's to another 100!
Here is to another 100 episodes. To celebrate, I have opened a new podcast page.
My first topic is a five minute rant about Apple Computer's decision to dump Google as the default search engine on their iPhone line of smart phones.
http://cybernightlife.mypodcast.com
This includes a mix of Creative Commons and other royalty-free sources of sound effects (mainly from older CD-ROMs I have purchased over the years).
I mention this as Google has been the subject of several news stories.
If cell phones are such a distraction while driving would the same be true for CB radios? What about "in car" radios like taxis use? What about Police radios or other radios such as in ambulances?
My mind always spins when people talk about Google's street view; I have been in my house for 2 years and the street is not even on google maps and its a least 3 years old. Not being listed is irritating, because everyone assumes that everything is mappable I get frantic calls from delivery guys who realize at the last minute they can't find the place.
London, Ontario is not a complete backwater but its certainly not cool. I worry with everyone assuming the digital world is completely accurate but in reality the focus is on what is cool (an commerically viable).
Interesting, Sarah. I wonder if there's a Spark story in that.
You can fix that by suggesting the change to Google. Our local mall development (Don Mills – we're on the map!) as missing updates going back almost 5 years.
But also consider that your City has not updated it's own data. I work at the City of Toronto, supporting staff within Urban Planning and City Buildings (the people who take your permit fees) and found that the process that culminates with a listed address is a complex one with many steps. You can skip the messy and long task of finding out why Pizza delivery drivers can't find your house by contacting google directly. Right click on the map to start, and select "report a problem". It worked like a charm for our area and they re-streeted our local mall.
However if you want to follow with your municipal reps you could find that you are not listed as the city maps data has not been shared yet with the map providers. That data must eventually be purchased by Google's suppliers for a fee as you pay municipal taxes for such services as municipal land information and mapping.
I am agree with you! Yes this is great information..Thanks
How many times have I asked a cashier to put the caller on hold until he/she has finished serving me.
Earbud etiquette and cellphone conversations when with another. Both are rude. I have made my views heard by my friends. Some remember others don't. Is this similar to watching television, cleaning the kitchen or doing something else when on a phone call at home?
The clown distraction is excellent proof of what happens when people are attached too much to cell phones. It is enough that I see people talking on their cell phones while checking out their purchases at the local department store. It is also amazing how many people I see driving while talking on their cell phones.
Currently, talking while driving is illegal in all of Illinois, and only hands free devices are legal in Indiana. At the start of this year, texting while driving is now illegal in the States, and there are stiff penalties for those who text while driving. The legal system here treats texting while driving the same as driving while drunk.
IMO, earbuds are only appropriate where you wish to be alone, such as in a public library or in your bedroom. Even if you are walking on a sidewalk, having earbuds on cuts you out of your surroundings, and hence, you cannot possibly know when you may walk out in front of a car, unless you are paying really close attention.
As for texting, I have never learned to text, nor do I have a use for texting. There is really no substitute for the use of proper English!!!!
I think when talking to people with earbuds wwe should just talk real quiet or even just mouth the words. This usually gets a result.
People talking on cell phones while in line or being served is just rude, no excuse. I think it’s the me, only me and nobody else but me problem. People quite often will use a cell phone as a defense mechanism, don’t bother me, I’m on the phone. But when dealing face to face with another person, communicate, don’t be a jerk.
Keeping earbuds in or talking on your cell phone while you are expecting service from someone is extremely rude. Put down your phone for a minute or wait until you are done your conversation. Treat other people with respect and you'll usually get it in return.
Congrats on show 100 but the opening sounded very familiar to me. The "cell phone test" seems to have many similarities to this THINK commercial developed in the UK. Both results are the same but it seems like limiting the result to cell phones is too narrow. Any distraction like radios or GPS should be able to cause this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4
I saw that! As a cyclist, I loved the campaign, but it also really scared me. I really try to make eye contact at intersections whenever possible now.
We should be careful about how we label tasks – driving is "multitasking" already. It involves many skills, many senses, proper concentration, few emotions, and no distractions.
Wow! What an interesting moment to be listening to the Spark Podcast
and Gary Liao's comments about earbud etiquette; sitting in a
courtroom with the judge, crown council, lawyers, and two defendants,
waiting for my name to be called as a potential juror in an upcoming
case. The circumstances made me second guess the appropriateness of
what I would normally take for granted, enjoying Spark while I carry
on with my day.
Serving a customer while he or she is talking on a cellular phone is one of my biggest pet-peeves–and I do not have that many of them. But first I would like to respond to A. Ryan's comment about employees answering phone calls while in the middle of a transaction. That is their job, simple as that. I have come across this type of situation many, many times when I go shopping in stores, and everytime the person helping me with my transaction would either pick up the phone and ask the caller to hold, or they would politely ask me to hold if the call is important enough. And I would not have a problem with holding, because again, it's their job to answer those potential business calls.
Now, regarding customers talking on cell phones while standing in front of a cashier. Unless you are a physician giving telephone orders to the nurse on the other end because your patient is crashing, or President Obama giving air strike orders because enemy missiles have been detected along the coast, your call is probably not all that important and can hold for 20 seconds while you make that exchange of money and goods/services.
Let's be honest, people talk too much on their cellphones, and too much of that talk is inconsequential if not trivial. Okay, once in a while a crisis or emergency comes along and you'll need to stay on the phone, but if that's the case, I am sure making that purchase would probably not be all that important in comparison at the time. You could simply say, "Excuse me, I've got to take this, let the lady behind me go first." and step aside to deal with your emergency; you would probably want some privacy by now anyway. (I am sure Obama would forget that he was buying that latte and be fully attentive in speak with his secretary of defense in case of a missile strike).
Ultimately, it is simply a courtesy to pause your call when you are actively engaged with someone momentarily. If that does not make sense to you, how about imagining someone comes to your at work, and does nothing but talk on his/her cell phone in front of you but expects you somehow figure out that the heck it is he/she wants from you?
oy… this makes me glad that I am not in the service industry any more.
What is the song playing at 13:10? Thanks a bunch!
Great show!
That'd be “part of my dejection” by adamned.age. You can find the link in the show notes above.
Congrtulations on #100. I'm a podcast listener so pardon the dated post.
I have to comment quickly on the interview with Danny Sullivan about the dark side of the cloud as it makes a few odd assumptions about the google cloud attack.
The recent Google Cloud attacks seemed to highlight the fallibility of the desktop computers accessing that cloud. It interview gave me the impression that the problem was google's cloud, and not the overall fallibility of the computers accessing it, which was in fact the case.
While the issue of who looks at your data is a a very important topic for long discussion, the issue of desktop computer security was left aside. Microsoft is quickly, and quietly patching holes in its operating system that allowed the breach to occur. Google meanwhile is looking to aggressively request browser version compliance (no IE 6, modern browser preferred) by the middle of this year, which is interesting in and of itself. All of these measures are going on while authorities around the world openly warn against using outdated software (browser, OSs, etc). some have gone further with language similar to the US Transportation Safety Admin's warning to 'stop driving your Toyota and go get it fixed.'
I use various cloud services for various purposes, and I find the greatest weak point for clients, vendors, and myself if the desktop. In a corporate environment we control the user experience so that we can control the security and risk. That option does not truly exist in a cloud model where so many desktops are infected without their owner's knowledge. Let alone educating those desktop computer owners as to what might be lurking on their computers and stealing their data, with or without the cloud.
Google at least has some of the best security minds on the payroll. If you data is going to be compromised, I'd place my bet on a single entity like Google, Microsoft, or others to detect intrusions and let you know. I defy any PC owner out there to prove 100% that their desktop environment is 100% secured 100% of the time.
I suspect that will sound like a challenge, but I know that a significant amount of data theft goes on in corporate environments where malware managed to bypass the layers of security already in place. The desktop/server/network security field a big industry for a reason and the primary target is almost always the millions of PCs connecting to the larger systems, not the main system itself which is guarded much more effectively.
The analogy: why break into the cloud when I can assume your identity and get in for free? Over and over and over…