Feed Reader
Beep beep beep! Beep beep beep!
The sound of the timer going off was quiet but insistent, marking the completion of my first task of the day.
I glanced back over the document I've drawn up. Seemed adequate. I knew I should be on track to complete the project without any issues.
I tacked on a brief message of thanks, and the file was away. It wasn't that the recipient wouldn't get the file without it, but showing a little courtesy can grease the gears of commerce, no matter what day and age you live in. Besides, it's not like it costs me anything to do it anyway.
"Alice, I'm finished. I'd like a cup of coffee now."
"Good work, Master," she replied. "Your coffee will be ready in 15 seconds."
Even as she said it, the scent of coffee beans began to permeate the room. Of course, being a hologram, Alice couldn't actually bring me the cup or drink it with me, so I poured a single cup for myself out of the pot. The dark liquid sloshed into the cup, moving but neither seeing nor speaking.
I took one long drink and set the cup down on the table with a distinctive "clink." These types of Ceramic ware, though very fragile, are quite popular just for the sound they make when set down. You can really feel the substance of the cup, the weight of it in your hand. It's a wonderful sensation, providing a sense of security, like having saved your hard-earned progress in a game.
"All right, then. Time to check the news feeds," I said.
"Would you like to use your Tabspot or the window?" Alice inquired.
"The window is just fine," I answered. "I'll read the detailed news stories later on the move."
"Understood. I will forward the more sensitive news to your Tabspot."
Alice made a polite bow and disappeared from view. I guess that's another way of showing courtesy.
"Well, time to get a look at the specs for that new Olive Industries device," I said to nobody in particular.
✦ ✦ ✦
The virtualizer mounted to my ceiling whirred to life, and a window appeared in front of me. Personal websites, blogs, news articles, everything I could want to read is restyled into a universal format and displayed side-by-side. Just as the window in my room takes the ever-changing world and gives me a constant, unchanging view of it, this window is my anchor in the chaotic, ever-changing sea of content on the internet.
No matter the source material, the window extracts the key elements and displays them in a consistent, fixed format ? one most suited to allow human beings, with our limited cognitive processing ability, to follow multiple news stories at once.
I once read of an incident where somebody changed the font of each article on a popular news site as a joke. The resulting articles were extremely difficult to read, but I'm sure that some less intelligent analysts would look at the data and conclude that ridiculous fonts lead to an increase in pageviews… But it's a false improvement, as this extra traffic is just people wanting to see what happened, not people actually reading the articles. Using a uniform font and style to deliver your content is of unparalleled importance.
"So this is Olive's new device, huh?" I said. "Fully adjustable size, and double battery life on top of that. They're certainly living up to their name as the leader in mobile device innovation. Alice, get me any data you can find on reservation numbers, server access trends, and stock prices of any companies affiliated with Olive. Have there been any comments from major competitors?"
"The CEO of JustSoft made a statement," Alice answered without activating her hologram. "However, it was removed by the filter."
"You mean it's not even worth watching? Let me see it anyway."
"Right away."
The video had been uploaded to some random hosting site; it wasn't even on the company's official stream. The CEO's words crept out of him with a forced slowness, as if each one was so important that it had to be emphasized. A cover tactic. It was immediately obvious to a keen observer that he had nothing to say. Even after his full five minute speech, all I heard was, "The only thing we can do at this point is try desperately to catch up to the competition." I doubted they'd have any success with that in the near future, though.
"Is this video not being discussed on the headliner?" I asked.
"There are already more than 200 parody versions of this video, some of which have more than 100,000 views," Alice began. "These are receiving a large number of comments praising the uploader's work, however there are very few in reference to the original video. I'm only seeing about 100 comments every ten minutes."
This CEO sure had a talent for drawing unnecessary attention to himself. If he had nothing useful to say, his best option would have been to not comment in the first place. He was just going to make things worse than they already were. I suppose that some might consider that a talent, though.
"How many comments regarding Olive's new device?"
"Around 2,500 comments every ten minutes, though that number is currently rising."
I appeared that Olive's competitors were out of the game for the time being. I knew it would be safe to assume that Olive would maintain their vise-grip on the mobile device market for some time yet.
✦ ✦ ✦
"That's enough for now," I sighed. As I swiped the window to the right, it was replaced with Alice's hologram. "I'm going to go get my shopping done. While I'm out, go through all the data from Olive's affiliates for me. Start from a year ago and look for any companies that have stocks that have been steadily rising since then. Also, widen the filter settings to grab more info on those affiliates."
"Understood," replied Alice. "I will update the data analysis filters right away. Shall I apply the new settings beginning tomorrow?"
"No," I answered. "Make it today. Actually, go ahead and apply them now. I wouldn't be surprised to find some suspicious stories already floating around out there. We've got to make sure to find the tail without stepping on it and giving ourselves away."
Olive's new product was going to make waves and get a lot of attention worldwide. With something this big, there would certainly be somebody out there trying to spin a profit. I just needed to keep a close eye on the market trends to ferret out whatever their plans might be so I could hop on board their money train.
When you bury something in a hole and try to hide it by smoothing out the dirt on top, it just makes it stand out from the uneven earth around it. Not even flat ground is perfectly flat.
"All right, Alice," I said, picking up my Tabspot. "I'm going to get some ketchup."
I slid my Tabspot into my pocket and headed for the door. As I was leaving, however, I had the strange feeling somebody was watching me. Turning back to look, I saw Alice's hologram still active. Normally, she would have always already switched it off by the time I reached the door, but today she remained standing there, staring intently in my direction.