Listen to Traci

I truly love writing this blog, but sometimes I struggle to decide what I’m going to write about.  And so I troll the internet, looking for topics that would lend themselves to my industry in general and, I hope, my job specifically.  But as anyone who has gotten lost in the nooks and crannies of the internet knows (sticky, tangled web indeed), it’s easy as all get-out to be distracted by the minutiae.  I've been keeping a list, and here are just a few tidbits that sparked my interest: Scientists believe the Greenland shark can live over 500 years.  Full disclosure – the dating method is inexact.  The particular shark in question might be anywhere from 272 to 512 years old, but most likely is about 400.  And one study in the journal   Aging Research Reviews notes a deep-sea sponge from the species Monorhaphis chuni   lived to be 11,000 years old. Sponges, by the way, are animals, not plants, which is another fascinating fact I learned. ...

I’m a working mom.  If you’re unfamiliar with the species, I won’t bore you with a detailed list of how busy that makes me, but I’ll bet you can imagine it just the same.  Peacefully immersing myself in music is a luxury.  So when I do have the chance, I want it to count.  But being a working mom also means I’m on a budget, and so have to be careful what that indulgence costs. Enter the upstart BackBeat 500 .  In a word, “wow.” The 500 is a lower-priced Bluetooth headset that rivals the quality of high-end models.  At $79.99, you won’t find wireless headphones at a better price with better sound (note:  there is an included wire to give you the option of connecting via a 3.5mm jack). According to NPD Group, in the first half of 2016 the overall headphone category saw a 7% growth rate in year-over-year sales, while cordless headset sales grew by 42% in the same time period.  With Apple leading the way for the cell phone industry to elimina...

Buzzwords aren’t all bad, but they can be vague, pretentious, and lazy.  Maybe they’re called buzzwords because they’re like mosquitoes:  annoying, hard to get rid of, and they’ll make you itch. We’ve all heard them, and most of us use them, but, like mosquitoes, they’re generally just irritating and useless.  Empower:   Seriously, I hate this.  It implies that someone else has to give us permission to have power. It’s condescending too.  And demoralizing.  The opposite of power.  Ideate:   It just means “think.”  Say “think.” “Ideate” makes you sound like you think too highly of yourself.  Bleeding Edge:   Gross.  Cutting edge will suffice, if you must, and doesn’t make me flinch. Bandwidth:   It’s trendy to use this word to identify a person’s or team’s capabilities, as in, “we don’t have the bandwidth to complete this project on time.”  But as someone who works in telecommunications, I prefer...

“The humble Cumulus humilis - never hurt a soul.”   ―   Gavin Pretor-Pinney ,   The Cloudspotter's Guide Joni Mitchell sang to us about looking at clouds from both sides.  Keanu Reeves took A Walk in the Clouds.  If you’re distracted, your head is in the clouds, if you’re deliriously happy, you’re on cloud 9, and when things aren’t going your way, remember that every cloud has a silver lining.  Clouds are powerful enough to block the sun but too insubstantial to hold.  But here in the super-technical, uber-digital 21 st century, The Cloud has come to mean something completely new, increasingly pervasive, and statistically explosive.   The odds are excellent that if you have a smart phone, something of yours is stored on the cloud somewhere.  Do you use Gmail, Instagram or Google?  You, my friend, are cloud surfing.  Basically, “The Cloud” is a whimsical phrase for computer outsourcing.  But holy cow is it po...