I spent a little more time last night looking over the NOAA website, and checking out all of the information that they offer.  I was actually surprised to find that maybe I’ll be going to Weather.gov more than Weather.com!  Not only has the site really evolved to provide some amazing information about the weather, but there are no annoying ads to have to look at!

Here is one of the pages that I really liked … the National Weather Service Pacific Southwest Graphical Weather Forecast.  This particular link will take you to their “loops” which are a series of animations that you can view of all sorts of weather related information.  If you choose “Weather” in the “Forecast Element” list box, and then click the “Play” button in the “Looping Control” you will get to see a multi-day animation of the coming weather.

I have to admit that I am really impressed with the programmers that wrote this … it could still be a little more user-friendly, but it is completely usable and provides everything that I want to see or know about … and all with NO ADVERTISEMENTS!  Give it a try and let me know what you think … I think that I like what I see!

Tonight, while looking for some animated satellite images of the incoming snow storm (yes … there is a big one coming to Tahoe and Utah this weekend!) I came across the OSEI – Operational Significant Event Imagery – site at NOAA. They have a cool page that is the OSEI Image of the Day … and today they are showing a picture of the ash plume coming off a volcano in Chile!

One of the amazing things in this particular photo is the size of the ash plume, and how evident it is as it crosses a significant portion of Argentina. This does not even appear to be a very large volcano, nor a large eruption. I have to admit … I didn’t know there was an active eruption in Chile right now.

I love to see our government publish information like this, as it is very educational, and heck … we’re paying for it! Another thing that I noticed that appears to be pretty cool is that the link they provide appears to be a static link that will not change … even when the image is updated each day. If this is true, then a different photo will be showing up next to this paragraph tomorrow … and the next day … 🙂

I guess that we’ll all find out tomorrow!

Over the last number of years, since some time in 2000, I have been learning more and more about what “commitment” really is. It’s funny … we hear the word, but do we really understand the meaning? We often talk about what we are committed to, but does that truly align with our actions?

In a seminar that I took with Landmark Education, one of the leaders mentioned something that really struck me as powerful. He asked the question “How can you tell what someone is truly committed to?” The key is that you could listen to what they say they are committed to, however those are just words … not the actions. Commitment is demonstrated in action.

The easiest way for any of us to look at what we are truly committed to, is to look at our lives! What we have, what we are doing, where we are in life … what IS … is what we are committed to! We can always say otherwise … but actions speak louder than words. So if our words, and the life that we have, do not align … then what is going on? A good part of this is where we spend our time. Are we spending our time on the things that we say we are committed to?

Bob Kaylor is the pastor at a church that I attend in Park City, and he gave a really good sermon a few weeks back about this exact subject. He did a rough drawing of the image that I have here in this post … and he talked about these four quadrants that our lives are spent in. These can be thought of as where we spend our time.

First, on the horizontal axis, there is “urgent” and “not urgent”. Anything the comes up during the course of the day can be placed into either of these quadrants. Is it something that has to be dealt with right now, this instant? Or can it wait? I know that I operate on this basis all day long. I have my “things to do” list … and then the constant stream of things that just come up out of no where. I either place them on my to do list, or they are urgent and I deal with them then.

Second, on the vertical axis, there are the things that are important and not important. These can be thought of as “related to our commitments” and “not related to our commitments”. This is the real difference, in my opinion, of getting things done … or not. Throughout the day there are so many interruptions and issues that can come up … and the critical skill is determining if they are important (keeping me in alignment with my commitments) or they are not important (not directly aligned with my commitments). Looking at the chart above, the key is “living above the line” … taking on the actions that are important in my life, and aligned with my commitments.

What is powerful about this, is that this technique and analysis can not only provide a good mechanism to stay on track pursuing what I say I am committed to, but it can also be used to be honest with myself and realize what I truly am committed to. Sometimes I look at what I am doing, and realize that I am down below the line working on things that are not important … and this gives me a place to start looking at what I am avoiding, and why I am not doing what I say I’m committed to. I always learn something about myself when I do that.

Are you living above the line? Are you living your life doing the things that you say you are committed to? If not … maybe looking at this chart will assist you in exploring why you aren’t living into your commitments … and maybe make a difference in your day, and have you consider what you spend your time doing each day!

P.S. The chart was my first experiment with the Google Chart API … it’s pretty cool!

I was pleased to read this recent article – Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah’s Traverse Mountain -  in the Register about Judd Bagley and his recent encounters with the powers at Wikipedia.  It is yet another reminder of the growing misuse of power on the Internet … and in my opinion the increasing danger that the public at large seems to see the Internet, Google, and Wikipedia (and many other websites) as the TRUTH.

The Internet has become an invaluable resource – if not an integral part of society – over the last two+ decades.  As the public has become educated about the Internet, it seems that few have really looked at, or understand, the inner-working of the technology, but more importantly the sociology, politics, and business behind the Internet.  It is amusing to me that so many people will cast a wareful eye towards so many things in the physical world … but then believe what they read on-line as unbiased “truth”.  The scarey part to me is that we are now two-generations+ into the Internet, and the amount of “error in judgement” is being multiplied as the millennials and younger generations are not being taught to “consider the source”.

We all hear about the people in chat rooms masquerading as younger people to pick-up on children, and even recently to psychological harassment on MySpace that led to the suicide of a 13-year old girl.  These are the overt misuses of the Internet that obviously can harm people … and lead to deaths.  Are children being taught to thoroughly question these virtual contacts?

Next come the slightly less manipulative uses of the Internet, that can be caused by acts of omission.  Google is a prime example off this … as it seems to me that younger and older generations are now becoming convinced that Google – and it’s first page of results – are the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  Google’s first page of results are very useful … but a very small subset of “reality” … of the total amount of human knowledge in the world.  Google’s software and algorithms are constantly being tweaked by humans, however they are only able to include information that they can find and interpret.  In addition, as proven by the acts of Google-bombing, the information and links on Google can be easily manipulated to cause erratic, if not inaccurate results.  Even Google’s own blog acknowledges the power and ability of determined users to Google bomb.  Are children being taught that Google is only one – completely commercially and business biased – source of information?

Unlike Google Bombing, which is manipulating the computer algorithms of software running in systems, the above article about Wikipedia discusses – to me – one of the most disgusting and perverse misuses of the Internet, and a threat to the reality of human society.  In the case of Wikipedia – which people actually believe is an attempt to create a useful and accurate resource for information about all subjects – if you read carefully, you will find it is actually a very tightly controlled organization that can alter and censor any information at any time.  The Wikipedia inner circle can create, or omit, anything that they wish in order to re-write history any way they want to.  Although Wikipedia is believed to be the “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” this is a complete lie!

The truth is that Wikipedia is “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit if Jimmy Wales and his closest friends say so.”  It is a controlled source of information that is now using its ability to manipulate public perspectives for unknown purposes.  It is really now making choices about which “reality” the public are allowed to see … what they are allowed to learn about … and how they are supposed to think about subjects.  Wikipedia is nowhere close to being on par with the printed encyclopedias of the past.  Are our children being taught to question these people and this information?  Or to just passively accept this perspective of reality as the truth?

As history has proven over and over again … any time a group of so few people are entrusted with so much power – and the public willingly hands over their freedoms to them – there will eventually be severe consequences to humanity.  I believe that we are watching a time where society is slowly being lulled into believing everything we are told … and the efficiency of the Internet enhances this … and not question the motives of the people behind the technology.

From the Register article about Wikipedia:

If you ask Judd Bagley and Patrick Byrne what’s going on, they’ll tell you the ban is part of much larger attempt to discredit their views on naked shorting. They believe that a small group of people is using Wikipedia as means of controlling public opinion.

“When you think of how the public consciousness of an issue can develop, one of the first things that’s going to happen in today’s age is people are going to Google the issue and then read the Wikipedia article that comes up,” Byrne says. “So if you can control that article, you can really deflect the discourse.”

Whatever the motives behind it, there’s no doubt that the Wikipedia inner circle rules those four articles with an iron fist. And as Charles Ainsworth points out, this puts a cloud over the entire encyclopedia.

“Wikipedia, in its way, is of great benefit to the web community,” he says. “But I’ve also been greatly dismayed that Wikipedia has apparently attracted some intelligent but problematic personalities with ambition, secret personal agendas, and cold, ruthless behavior towards other editors and ideas that they perceive as threatening their power, position, or agendas. What’s disheartening is that Jimbo and the rest of the Wikimedia Foundation not only don’t do anything about it, but they appear to support these charlatans to some degree.”

“When Bagley attempted to level the playing field, he was banished immediately,” Ainsworth continues. “Obviously, there’s something seriously wrong with the way Wikipedia is being managed and administered. I don’t know if it threatens the long-term viability of the project or not, but it is cause for concern among those of us who spend a lot of hours actually trying to write quality articles.”

I know that I will be teaching my children to always question what they read … to always question the motives of the writers and creators of information.  I’ll teach them to be very wary of everything that read on Wikipedia, and the results of every Google search.  The rules will be to “consider the source” … and “beware of strangers.”

I’ve recently been doing a lot of development of Flex and AIR applications, using Adobe’s Flex Builder IDE. For right now, I’ve been downloading the beta builds of Flex Builder 3, and we’re using it for several development projects.

Flex Builder 3 is based on the Eclipse IDE, and the beta comes as a complete bundle of Eclipse and the Flex Builder plug-ins. One of the things that has bothered me recently is that, although Eclipse includes Concurrent Versions System (CVS) support in the base package, there is no included support for Subversion (SVN). Both CVS and SVN are popular systems for groups of developers to keep track of source code of their projects. CVS has been around for decades, SVN is a newer solution with a lot of valuable enhancements. Luckily, there is an Eclipse module to add SVN capabilities … it’s called Subclipse.

If you visit the Subclipse website, you’ll see they have a great page that walks through the steps for installing Subclipse … except that in many cases – and ALL of mine – it simply does not work. The installation they outline makes a huge, gross assumption … that you have installed the Java development libraries and tools. I haven’t.

I ended up searching around on Google, and found the answer! And it works great! It turns out that Adobe has had this reported to them as a bug … and I have to agree that they ought to be bundling SVN support in Flex Builder 3! In the mean time, you can read through the Flex Builder 3 / SVN bug report … and the specific comment that outlines the solution … or you can follow the instructions below:

1. Go to the menu: Help -> Software updates -> Find and install.
2. Select search for new features to install.
3. Check the Europa discovery site and the SubEclipse update site.
4. NOTE:  add the Subclipse site via ‘New Remote Site’ if it isn’t present http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.2.x/
5. Click Finish.
6. Check Subclipse.
7. Under the Europa discovery site open “Java Development” and check “Eclipse Java Development Tools”.  This is the key component that you need!
8. Click Next and complete the wizard.

The wizard should download the necessary components and install everything correctly.  If you then look at the Perspectives in the upper right of the Flex Builder window, you can now open the “SVN Repository Exploring” perspective and begin using Subclipse!

I’m building a fort / platform / swing set for my backyard. It’s been fun working on it with my 5 year old son Sam, and it’s going to be huge. I started by looking at a lot of the wooden sets that you can buy, and realized that for what I wanted to build it would be much cheaper to build it myself. Plus … I love working on projects like this (non-computer work) and thought it would be fun to do with my son.

My original design called for a 8′ by 8′ square platform that would 8 feet off the ground. There would be a railing around the platform, and I’ll slowly add various ways to get from the ground up to the platform … a ladder, a rope ladder, a climbing wall with the various hand holds, etc. The corner posts are built from 12′ 2×4 boards that are sandwiched together and bolted. This picture is Sam assisting me as we built one of the four corner posts. I was able to put together the four corner posts in my garage, then join these with the 2×6 side plates. Then my friend Joe Skehan came up to Heber and assisted me in pulling all of this out of the garage, tilting it up in the backyard, and bolting the other set of side plates on to it.

Of course, this was all done after I found out that I picked the wrong lunber at Home Depot … so it is now a 10′ by 10′ platform! I had pulled 10′ 2×6 lumber instead of the 8′ 2×6 boards I meant to grab. When faced with loading all the lumber back into my truck, or building a bigger platform I immediately acknowledged that bigger *IS* better. 🙂

The next step was to dig the holes for the concrete footers for each corner … I’ll have to post more pictures at some point, but I bought some 8″ concrete form tubes, and we dug 24″ down for each corner and placed the tubes … but then this is where I wanted to ensure that I got things square … hmmm … I know that I learned how to calculate all of that back in high school … how did we do that Trig?

Well … I first pulled my measurements … the corner posts were 113.5″ on center one way … and 116″ on center the other way. To ensure that the legs were square, I had to find out the diagonal measurements between each pair of opposite legs … and it was fun to remember the methodology to do this. Of course my Treo phone has a calculator, and it even has an “Advanced Mode”, which then has a “Trig” option. I then had to remember the old SOHCAHTOA … Sine = Opposite over Hypotenuse, Cosine = Adjacent over Hypotenuse, Tangent = Opposite over Adjacent. Well … my two known measurements were the opposite and adjacent sides … I wanted the diagonal … the hypotenuse. So I first took 116 divided by 113.5 = 1.0220264317180616740088105726872 … then took the inverse tangent of that (or on my Treo the aTan) which gave me an angle of 45.624112346205261567807788449794. Almost a 45 degree angle. So now I have an angle and the length of the opposite side (116″) so I can take the sine of that angle and I get 0.71476706255779729511116939700283 … divide 116″ by that and I have my hypotenuse: 162.29063435700779834449790836733″

So now I just had to ensure that the brackets I was embedding into the concrete were properly spaced … 113.5″ in one direction, 116″ in the other direction, and 162.3″ diagonally from each other. I put some stakes into the ground to hold them into place … and now have a very square foundation for the fort. This weekend I’ll be tightening up the bolts, adding a few brackets to strengthen the fort, and beginning to add the joists to the platform. I want to see how far I can get before winter comes on strong.

It was fun to think through the math … and realize that there really *WAS* a reason to learn Trig in high school … 🙂

Well … I had to do it. For multiple reasons. First, I really want to see what one of these machines looks like. Second, I’ll be able to watch my son play with it, and see just how usable the software is. Lastly … and somewhat the deal closer … when I bought one, some child somewhere else on the planet will get a new laptop.

The One Laptop Per Child project has finally reached fruition … and for the next 14 days they are offering a Give One Get One offer … if you pay $399 you can give a OLPC to a child somewhere, and also get one for yourself. Oh yeah … and $200 of that is a tax deductible donation.

The OLPC is a Linux machine with some pre-packaged software for kids. From their website:

A real world laptop for real world change. The XO laptop.

Many years and an infinite amount of sweat equity went into the creation of the XO laptop. Designed collaboratively by experts from academia and industry, the XO is the product of the very best thinking about technology and learning. It was designed with the real world in mind, considering everything from extreme environmental conditions such as high heat and humidity, to technological issues such as local-language support. As a result, the XO laptop is extremely durable, brilliantly functional, energy-efficient, responsive, and fun. Come take a look.

I’m a little bummed that some of the features appear to be most useful when a bunch of kids have these in the same area … but we’ll see how it goes.

Social and sharing

The XO laptop was designed to provide the most engaging wireless network possible. The children can connect, chat, share information on the Web, gather by videoconference, make music together, edit texts, read e-books, and enjoy the use of collaborative games online.

I’m excited to see exactly what change this device causes around the world … we are living in interesting times …

I came down to the Salt Lake Valley last week to listen to Guy Kawasaki and what he had to say. As usual, he started off with his background at Apple, with the Macintosh, and railing on Windows, Bill Gates, and Windows users. It’s funny … but to me this really dates him … but of course appeals to the “religious” technical folks.

The title slide of his presentation was “The Art of Innovation” … and he indicated that what he is sharing is not necessarily what he did, but what he learned. He went through his top 10, actually 11, key points to innovation. I have to admit that I really like his suggestions overall … and he presents them well.

1. Make Meaning – it’s not about making money! Money is a natural consequence of making meaning. Make things better, or remove bad things.

This is something that I learned a long time back about “commitment” … what are you really committed to? The example that I heard is that football is not about the score on the scoreboard … it’s about getting the ball across the goal line. If you think it’s about the score, then the best way to get points on the board would be to run up to the box where the scoreboard is controlled and flip the switches! Most people get very confused about doing things for money … but instead consider that money is a measurement of whether you are doing other things right.

2. Make Mantra – this is beyond a mission statement. Short. To the point. What is your company or product about. Why does it exist? What is the purpose?

• Wendy’s – “Healthy fast food”
• Nike – “Authentic athletic performance”
• FedEx – “Peace of mind”
• eBay – “Democratize commerce”

3. Jump to the next curve – it’s not about being 5%, 10%, or 15% better … it’s about a leap forward. It’s not about being slightly better.

I like this one a lot … it’s all about thinking beyond everyone else. Not taking an existing idea and working to improve it … but making that leap to something completely new!
4. Roll the DICEE –

• Deep: Fanning, Dram (Reef) – Sandals with bottle openers, or bottles! – complete functionality
• Intelligence: BF-104 Flashlight (Panasonic) – support for various types of batteries
• Complete: LS (Lexus) – it’s more than just the product … it’s service and support
• Elegant: nano (Apple) – great UI, easy to use
• Emotive: Harley Davidson – cause emotion

These are the key components that Guy talked about for success of your company or product.

5. Don’t worry, be crappy – it does not have to be perfect when you ship! Evolve it! But get it out there for people to use.

This is another point that I fully believe it … it is a cornerstone of Agile development methodologies. Get your idea out there quickly and get it into use! Get the feedback and iterate. Many people often spend too much time working to perfect something … and end up with something that is only perfect for them!

6. Polarize people – you do not have to appeal to everyone. This is not bad … feel free to create in a way that some people love, and some people hate. This is much better than people don’t care what you have created!

7. Let a hundred flowers blossom – let it go how it goes. If people who are not your target market are buying your product … let them! They are now your target market! Do not believe that you know exactly who and how things are going to go.

8. Churn, baby, churn – evolve. Listen. Alter. Customize. Enhance.

9. Niche thyself – Ability to provide unique product or service vs. Value to customer.

Guy presented a quadrant chart that show these two values on each axis. The point is that the best place to be is where you have a unique product that provides the most value to the customer.

• Not Unique, little value to customer = DotCom
• Not Unique, value to Customer = Price competition
• Unique, little value to customer = stupid
• Unique, value to customer = sweet spot!

10. Follow the 10/20/30 rule – the PowerPoint rule. Life is a pitch. Be prepared to pitch.

• 10 Slides – the optimal number of slides in any pitch.
• 20 Minutes – the amount of time to present your slides.
• 30 Point Font – the best size to use for the audience.

11. Don’t let the bozos grind you down – no matter what, do not let the people who doubt and question stop you from believing in your vision! There are at least two types of bozos … the loser bozos, and the winner bozos. Loser bozos are the obvious people who just do not get it … they themselves are not necessarily accomplished … and they want to tell you why your idea will not work. The most dangerous bozos are the ‘winner bozos’. The people who look accomplished … have money … maybe even had one or more successes themselves. In most cases … they are lucky. So even they are not the ones to listen to. Pursue your dream!

He ended offering a copy of the presentation (contact mary-louise@garage.com), giving a plug for Truemors.com (“NPR for your eyes”), and acknowledging his photos come from iStockPhoto.com. He then went to Q&A …

I had to leave before the Q&A took off … but was glad that I went. It’s always nice to hear a refresher from someone like Guy … he’s a good speaker … fun to hear him.

There is an interesting dynamic that appears to be growing in the computer industry … and in society in general.  I’m not quite sure how I feel about it, and don’t want to be judgmental about it.  It’s not a matter of right or wrong, good or bad, but does seem to bring into question respect for intellectual property and the law.

Today I read this article, Hack Attack : Install Leopard on your PC in 3 easy steps! which describes how to install the new Apple operating system – Leopard – on a PC.  This would be all fine and dandy if Apple was selling Leopard for this purpose … but they are not.  Instead, it appears that once again some people have taken it upon themselves to reverse engineer the software, and create some patches, to allow it to be installed on non-Apple hardware.

Don’t get me wrong … I’m all for the challenge and proving ones skills, but there is something that just doesn’t sit ok with me about this.  Also, anyone that knows me understands that I am not a huge Apple fan, and have long questioned their proprietary lock-in hardware and world … but I fully respect their legal rights to what they have created.  Even the author of the article states “If you noticed I haven’t posted the links to the Torrent that contains the DVD image and the zip. Well I haven’t posted them because I am sure the lawyers over at Apple are going to sue the hell out of me.“  A full acknowledgment about the questionable nature of what is being done.

Over the last decade I have really had to do some soul searching about the issues of stealing music over the Internet … stealing videos … stealing software … and now stealing operating systems.  In the end, I just can not justify it.  I don’t do it, and do not believe it represents honesty and integrity when you steal.  Period.

What is sad to me is that somewhere within our society there seems to be a growing acceptance of stealing and theft of property and services.  People who want to argue and justify their stealing of MP3s over the Internet … stealing of movies … stealing of applications … and now others that want to distribute stolen copies of operating systems.  In some ways I just wish those who do choose to steal all of this content simply admitted that they are thieves … that they choose to steal from others and that they can create reasons and justifications that make it ok for them.
I’m not close to perfect … I also break the law.  I often exceed the speed limit when I am driving.  I don’t make excuses and try to justify my actions … I choose to speed at times.  Oh … and if I get caught?  The police officer is not an @$$hole for pulling me over … he’s doing his job, and I am being given the consequences of my actions.  I am the one that caused and created the ticket.
For all of the people out there that choose to steal … why not come clean and at least own that you are a thief, and accept the punishment if it ever comes your way.  Oh, and also … make sure to teach your children about this also.  I worry about the nation of thieves that we are creating … all with nice clean excuses and justifications.  At some point I believe that the example we are setting is going to come back and bite us.  It seems we are raising our children and younger generations with a distorted perspective of respect for intellectual property rights, when they are quickly moving into a world where we – as a country – are leaning harder and harder on revenues from intellectual property.

Less than 24 hours after the release of a new product representing the work of hundreds – if not thousands – of Apple employees … it’s already being given away across the Internet.  It will be interesting to watch this trend … and see where it goes.

For quite a while now while driving, I’ve seen the square “hazard” signs on various tanker trucks and semis. These signs almost always have some number within them, and of course I realize that the numbers have to align with the load/freight that they are carrying.

In my driving boredom I began to wonder about what these numbers represent … time for Google. As I began to search I found a vendor who sells the DOT placards and then a reference to hazardous materials numbering. Well, this second site had an interesting set of pages that allow you to browse through the various numbers and identify the materials. At the bottom of one of them was the quote:

Data Source for our online 2004 ERG

This information was compiled from the 2004 Emergency Response Guidebook (2004 ERG) which is produced by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Bingo! So the next search for ’emergency response guidebook’ took me to the US Office of Hazardous Materials Safety. And yes … they have a guide book and more! The Emergency Response Guidebook page has a whole slew of formats that you can download the lists of materials … and complete details about their numbering system. They have .PDF versions, and even PDA and PC software versions of their guides. When I didn’t see a Palm version I did a little more searching and found the WISER site. WISER is the Wireless Information System for First Responders, and it has a wide range of tools for looking up the materials, and also looking for how to deal with them. WISER has a Palm version of software I’m going to check out.

After finding what I was looking for, I was amazed at the numbering system, and the details explained in their guidebook … it’s interesting to see the amount of detail that can be extracted by just looking at the patterns of the numbers. (Check out the page numbered 20 in the PDF …)

Well … my driving boredom got me to spend an hour or so to learn something new … and maybe this is a new travel game in the car for vacation trips! “Ok kids … lets see who can find the most variety of hazardous materials between here and St. Louis!” or “Alright, on this part of our trip we want to find the truck carrying the most highly flammable liquid that reacts dangerously with water, emitting flammable gas!”

Uh, that last one would be labeled “X323”, not to be confused with “339” which would be a “highly flammable liquid which can spontaneously lead to violent reaction” … see page 21 in your PDF.