This Week's Reading

Just now reading up on gist.com via Entrepreneur.

Trying to locate a couple of items based on their photos with TinEye.  Not great results yet but interesting idea...

If you want to test drive iOS apps directly from a browser, look at Pieceable.

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Spiceworks sent out a message with some tips last week.

CLI to Remotely Uninstall Software on Windows

Remote Windows Management Poll

Remotely Cleaning a Computer Securely

Activate vPro on recent Intel computers

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This one is pretty funny, TechRepublic's 10 Linux applications that should be easier to use.  Granted it's definitely techie/server admin, but we had a good laugh being able to relate to more than a couple of them.

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I'm working on an ERP implementation with a respectable vendor.  We're supposed to be collaborating on documents using Sharepoint/Groove.  Regrettably SP & Groove don't play nicely with Mac, Linux, Firefox, mobile OS, etc. and it's a cluster.  I really want SP to work the way it seems like it should but it doesn't.  On top of that, to get the Sharepoint Workspace, you have to run Office 2010 Pro Plus (or better).  A lot of work and expense to use something that's so restricted and doesn't do mobile well.  Interesting timing on this article in the *World magazines.  Also looking at SouthLabs SharePlus mobile client.

So to make this work, as intended, I have to use Microsoft's 'SharePoint Workspace' application (licensed).  Here's what I get after clicking through the setup which was easy enough, though there's not really any validation that it's working correctly....  So now I get to fire up my virtual machine to access this, and then this separate application, and then try to figure out what's going on.  Brilliant.  I'm not thinking that I'll be deploying this inside my organization anytime soon.

Might have to see if we can step back and use Dropbox...

 

 

Blog Update

While I'd love to claim that I was full of original ideas and had the time to document them in my blog, the reality is that I'm a media junkie and consume tons of news.  Seeing as how the focus of my blog is technology developments, tips, and fixes and most of this is sourced from other sites, I'm adjusting the way that I share the information.  Admittedly it is a big time saver for me too.....

With that said, there's now a link in the right-hand column of my blog page indicating the various pages and articles of interest to me that I'm sharing (see screen shot below).  If you follow you'll see frequent updates as there are usually a few articles each day I like to share.

I'll still re-post articles of particular interest or use because I still often refer to those myself, and a few people have mentioned that it's been useful.

By the way, if you'd like to subscribe to my shared items as an Atom/XML feed, please visit this page.

Thanks,

Aron

 

Petaluma an art destination

Our local online paper, Petaluma 360, recently had an article about Petaluma's growing art scene.

Sonoma County Movies

Just came across this list of movies filmed in Sonoma County.

Find your dream home with these real estate search sites

Find your dream home with these real estate search sites: "Want to find your dream home? We take a look at four real estate search services to help you in that endeavor."

(Via Clippings.)

YouTube Phenom On Dancing Badly The World Over

I'm really not sure how this pertains to much but then again maybe it's community which ties back to some of my early posts. Matt Harding travelled the world and met with danced with people all over. The dancing is entertaining but the sense of a worldwide network of friends is pretty neat. Be sure to read the whole NPR interview after watching the video.

YouTube Phenom On Dancing Badly The World Over: "

Matt Harding has gained a cult following for his videos of himself in various places around the world, dancing badly. Over 20,000 fans sent him invitations to dance with them in their hometowns. His latest video, of communal bad dancing, got more than 3 million YouTube views its first week up.

» E-Mail This'''' » Add to Del.icio.us

"

Berkeley Priuses

The Economist posted an article today about the study of environmentally green locales. Unsurprisingly they found that green actions beget other green actions. Berkeley and much of Marin county have some of the highest green areas in California, nonetheless the United States. It would seem there is a certain competitiveness of being green at the moment. Not surprisingly, they also found that Bakersfield and Folsom are at the bottom of California's scale and I can confirm the greater Folsom area from personal observations--it would seem that El Dorado Hills and Folsom are oblivious to rising energy/fuel costs as the parking lots of the overpriced shops are littered with large SUVs.

Top 10 Wired.com Reader Black-and-White Photos, Decided by You

These are some outstanding B&W photos posted on Wired. I can't pick a favorite as they are all quite incredible either technically or for the mood that they capture.

Top 10 Wired.com Reader Black-and-White Photos, Decided by You: ":

For the past two weeks we've asked you to go on a color fast for our black-and-white photo contest, with enlightening results. We now permit you to gorge on the entire visible spectrum once again, but first check out the fruits of your abstinence. These 10 photos are the highest-ranking black and whites among Wired.com readers. Whiffleboy won the contest with his photo 'A Bit Spotty,' at left. Whiffleboy will be receiving a subscription to Wired magazine and a digital picture frame for his desk.

Since we had so many great photos that we thought should've received more votes, we've also compiled a Wired.com Editor's Choice Black-and-White Photo Gallery.

Our next twice-monthly photo contest is water. Show us your best homage to life's elixir. Check out the contest page for more information.

Left:

A Bit Spotty

Submitted by Whiffleboy

Photographer's comment:

'A self-portrait in a stairwell.'

:

Straw Dogs

Submitted by Jason Flett

Photographer's comment:

'Taken in drought-affected area of Victoria, Australia.'

:

Man In the Fog

Submitted by David Gordon

Photographer's comment:

'A man walks the Golden Gate Bridge through the fog.'

:

Running Through

Submitted by Harrison

Photographer's comment:

'Taken back in February. The bus didn't show up for another 30 minutes.'

:

Wicked Path

Submitted by Shawn Kresal

Photographer's comment:

'Taken in Yosemite after an unusual rain-filled winter loosened once-still stones and slicked paths.'

:

Girl, Unafraid

Submitted by Neil Bernhart

Photographer's comment:

'This girl was playing around at dusk with the incoming waves.'

:

Cape Fear

Submitted by Vilhjalmur Ingi Vilhjalmsson

Photographer's comment:

'Canon EOS 40D + Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6. Two exposures combined together to create a high-dynamic-range image (hdr) then converted to blue/black sepia.'

:

Pitty

Submitted by Charline Messa

Photographer's comment:

'Canon EOS 400D. Sigma Lenses 70-200mm f/2.8. This picture was taken in a rock festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, promoted by a radio station with lots of famous Brazilian bands. But in my point of view this moment was unique, the stage was all covered with smoke, her hair was flying with the wind and her face was so quiet and peaceful behind all that noise, I had to take a shot and document that moment.'

:

Silhouette

Submitted by Andrew Scharlott

Photographer's comment:

'Lizard inside a frosted-glass light fixture outside a hotel in Kauai, Hawaii.'

:

Hidden?

Submitted by bushn

Photographer's comment:

'Black & white macro of pill bug in defense mode.'

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(Via Clippings.)

Main Street, Sebastopol

This is an eclectic and cool little town west of Santa Rosa. I always enjoy going through Sebastopol....

Main Street, Sebastopol: "Main Street, Sebastopol This western Sonoma County town has always marched to its own drummer - environmentally sensitive, organically inclined. Main Street remains faithful to that beat with a two-block array of eclectic businesses, all locally owned and...

"

(Via SF Gate BayArea.)

Go Fish

Why does my profile show me wearing a tie and holding a fish?

The photo was taken around 1995 when I worked for Soundstream Technologies. We had a marketing manager, Mark Spinella, who had a very creative and often unorthodox style for marketing. If memory serves, we used that photo for a newsletter picture for an article I had written.

I've kept the photo around for more than a decade now because it's an excellent reminder to never take myself too seriously. Regardless of your role, it does wonders to sometimes take a step back and laugh at yourself. If you have a function that is often stressful it's even more important. Besides that, if you can't laugh at yourself, I believe you have a tendency to take other people's criticism to heart and it disturbs the creative flow.

If nothing else, it makes for a great icebreaker when you meet a business partner or potential employer who has done a simple Google search on your name...

The Evolution of Community

In my current position I have two staff members who are remote workers, working out of their home in Portland, Oregon. They are really solid contributors and very interesting people.

I was talking to one of them the other day about things and since he is from the Marin County area he has a lot of friends and family down here. I asked him if they had made many friends in the Portland area and he said that they aren't really very social so they pretty much keep in contact with the friends they've had for years. He said he keeps up with his friends almost daily via e-mail, instant messaging, and playing X-box over the network together.

This individual's social interactions with old friends only reinforces my theory that the nature of community and friendship is evolving dramatically. In an earlier post I recounted how simply posting old family photos has reunited my Italian family with my U.S. family. Even though I only see them once every few years, I have a small handful of really good friends from high school and grade school. In fact, we've been able to reconnect and have more frequent communication in the last few years as they have become more regular computer users and are using audio and video chat. Obviously you have to have something in common or some sort of connection in the first place but the now ancient art of letter writing is no longer required, spontaneous short conversations are possible without often inconvenient telephone conversations.

Some people might bemoan a lack of depth as a result of the abbreviated instant messaging (IM) or text message conversations but I think without these vehicles that most people would otherwise abandon communication with their geographically distant friends, or at least let them lapse.

Again, my team member's means of keeping in touch with his friends through e-mail, IM, and X-box gaming is neat. No, it's not the same as 'being there' but often times that's not even an option and without these things, it's highly probable that they'd lose touch all together.

Coffee Makers....

Minor post here but I just noticed that my response to a story about reducing energy consumption was picked up in another story on ComputerWorld. Too cool!

In sum, we switched to an insulated carafe coffee maker because we discovered that leaving a coffee maker on to keep the coffee in the carafe warm takes about 1,000 watts of electricity. That's nearly as much as a hair dryer or a space heater! Of course, coffee that hasn't been burnt by a 1,000 watt warming plate for an hour tends to taste better too.

On Community

I was talking with my in-laws over the Thanksgiving holiday and the subject turned to that of their neighbors. They referred to 2 or 3 of their neighbors by the nicknames they had come up for them. I thought this sounded curious and I asked them if they knew any of their neighbors by given name and they answered 'no.' They've lived beside and across from the same neighbors for seven years. Interestingly enough none of this surprises me.

It could be my imagination but it seems to me that fewer and fewer people actually know their neighbors. I try to reserve judgement on most things but I really do believe that it's beneficial for everyone to know their neighbors. I'm not saying you need to be best friends with them but I believe it improves the quality of your life if you know who lives next to you and you have a rapport. With my first home I got to know nearly all the neighbors on my street. We would help each other out, share tools, and attend one another's parties for kids, Halloween, etc. When we moved to Reno we immediately got to know our neighbors to our right--they are DINKs who also enjoy camping, motorcycles, bicycling, and home improvement. We looked out for one another, took care of the other's house during vacations, and would have the periodic beer or dinner. We got to know the people across the street and a few others.

I guess I believe that it can be a mutually beneficial thing to know your neighbor. I believe it's better for the neighborhood, the property value, the safety, and general happiness if you know something about the people with whom you live in close proximity. It's nice having a name to associate to the face, and it is even better if you get to be friends. I still consider my neighbor from Placerville to be one of my best friends.

Before leaving my in-laws after Thanksgiving I asked them for a New Year's resolution--get to know 3 of your neighbors. I think this is good for everyone no matter where you are. You'll enjoy the community you help to build. You'll be a part of something.

My Vision of Web 3.0

Breaking out my crystal ball I have some visions of what I would like Web 3.0 to be. Before I get into that though I should probably qualify what Web 2.0 is to me....

Web 2.0 has brought about the advent of social networking and instant communications--this includes Facebook, MySpace, major adoption of instant messaging, Digg, Blogs, Wikis, mobile communications (texting, IM, & mail on phones), Podcasts, Photocasts, video chats, Skype, major adoption of digital cameras and the corresponding Flickr & PicasaWeb, online file storage (box.net, etc.), Gmail, Google Apps, and of course, RSS/XML implementation. That's a lot of stuff, and for me, Web 2.0 is about the massive bevy of information, communication, and news that's available at a moment's notice. If you're an enthusiast, it can also become overwhelming. Sometimes I feel more obligated to keep up on my RSS feeds than my e-mail. Strange, but true. I am a sponge for this stuff. I've embraced many of the technologies myself but it's coming to a point where there are several alternatives in each segment and not everyone follows one or the other. I have Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn accounts, as well as some others. I can't keep up on all of them so I pretty much gravitate to one from each category, but even that can be overwhelming. This is where my vision of Web 3.0 comes in.

I believe (or at least I want to believe) will be about transparency. I want all of these wonderful web-delivered applications to integrate at some level and be more intuitive to use (my mom is still struggling with trying to upload photos, and she's one of the braver ones to even try in my family) and talk to each other. I think there are hints of it with Google because Blogger and PicasaWeb are kind of linked (not totally, but a little) and of course you're either in the dark ages or a rebel if you don't have a Gmail account these days. Of course Google also has their Jabber-based IM client too so they're building the suite. Of course, some people are mumbling that Google is becoming the Evil Empire to replace Microsoft but that remains to be seen.

So, there's my prediction, Web 3.0 will be refinement and natural selection of the best of breed of the categories of Web 2.0 applications and it will be transparent and unobtrusive and intuitive. Now, can someone please make it happen SOON??? I might even pay $9.99 per month for it all ;-).

Blogosphere and the smooth renderings of developers and engineers

One of my favorite things to see online these days is real blogging done by software and hardware developers/engineers. After being in technology long enough you come to appreciate the work that these folks often do and in a way I consider many to be artists, for me, I see parallels with musicians.

The way I see it, a musician can have a general sense and style with which you can relate. You find yourself enjoying particular tracks or an album and eagerly await the next. I often find the same thing with software--some things you eagerly await the next iteration to see what styles and rhythms are incorporated as form and features. For years you've been able to pick up biographies or at the least, liner notes, or Rolling Stone articles to learn more about the creative mind of the artist of choice.

Until recent times, you haven't really been able to see that with developers or engineers. Now, a few of them are exposing themselves via blogs. Cisco is making an attempt (gotta love the Baby Poop entry!) but my hat is off to the MacMojo blogs by the kids at Microsoft's Mac Business Unit. They've written about what their daily lives are like, including home-time, what inspires their designs, and reasons for things being a certain way. It's very approachable and might even cause you to respect their art even more. My second favorite is the Office 2007 (Windows) blog. What it has in common with the MacMojo blog is an honest, approachable, and grateful-for-your-business tone to it. I know many people think of Microsoft as the big evil monster but skimming through some of these blogs really makes you think differently about that. Apple, AT&T, and most other big companies could learn from this example.

On [Web] Community, Part III

In part II of On [Web] Community I mentioned how publishing old family photos restored communications with my Italian grandmother's side of the family. Well, it didn't stop there. I also posted several of my Smetana family photos to the same web site and received communications from my father's cousins on both his father's and mother's side of the family. As it now turns out, his cousin Paul is putting together a Smetana reunion in Lansford, ND 2009 and I've built a small web site for the event as well. Most of the communication with my dad's side of the family had been lost for over 30 years.

While the re-discovered familial ties was not something I had planned, it was a very fortunate unintended consequence. Once again, the web can build tremendous community.

On [Web] Community, Part II

Earlier I discussed the new type of community that I've begun to notice evolving. Really, it's been coming for years but I remember commenting to a more philosophic friend of mine how when I went for a neighborhood walk I would notice smaller yards, larger houses, and few people working outside or playing. The common thing, if I were walking at twilight or later, was that the iridescent glow of a television or computer monitor was often prevalent inside many homes. Granted, when I first made my observation not a lot of homes had computers so I'm reasonably sure this was the glow from the television. I believe times have changed and more people are getting their entertainment and interaction through their computers.

Instant messaging lets me video chat with my brother in Australia and his wife and newborn son. It lets my mother see my new daughter instantly and now interact with her. I can post photos to my photo site and my friends and family can keep up on activities of ours at their leisure. I'm able to send e-mails to my friends in Europe I made twelve years ago when I traveled there for business for several years.

A particularly neat thing happened last year as a result of the Internet. I have become the family documentarian and have scanned nearly every photo I have along with my parents' old family photos. Some photos date back to the 1910s. I've also made a point of labeling the photos with first and last names and dates where applicable and if possible, places. I posted all of these to my family tree web site early in 2006. Let me give you a bit more perspective now... On both my father's and mother's mother's side of the family there has been relatively little knowledge of the families. My grandmother came to the US after WWII from Italy after having married my grandfather. While she had photos and letters from her family, most of the communications didn't make it past her (not by design, it just kind of happened). As time has gone on and I've taken up an interest in my lineage, I gathered as much information as possible from my mother and my uncle. It just so happened that they seemed to have more information in their heads than they might have realized and I included it in my documentation. That should hopefully give you a better sense of how the information on my mother's mother's side was lost. So, within a couple of months of posting the information on the web site with photos, I received a communique from someone who turns out to be my mother's cousin in Italy! We corresponded and I passed the information along to my mother. It so happens that they had been curious about what had happened to my grandmother's American family. My mother and her brother had also been planning a trip to Europe and after some correspondence with the Italian family they adjusted their trip to take them to Italy to visit and stay with the Italian cousins. It turned out to be a small reunion in Italy and they had a grand visit. This summer my mother's cousin's 18 year old daughter came to the US for 6 weeks and stayed with my mother, my uncle, and my brother. She had a great time and was able to see more of the US than most Europeans do in a lifetime.

So, with that verbose story, I can only emphasize that there is a new community on the web. I still don't believe life should exist solely on the web but it can be used to enhance your life and bring infinitely greater connectivity to family and friends than you might ever hope without it!

On [Web] Community, Part I

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I've had this conversation a couple of times with technology workers who have kids. The gist of it is this:

They prefer to keep their kids somewhat isolated from technology, from having a computer to cell phones of their own, to instant messaging to FaceBook or MySpace pages. I'll ask them why and the response is that they don't want them to be like all the other kids who seem preoccupied with texting, communicating via MySpace/FaceBook, and IM. They want their kids to go outside and have live, in-person interaction with other kids.

I can see this from their perspective. I grew up in a small western Montana town where we played baseball and football in the back yard in the summer until it got dark. We rode our bikes all over town in small gangs. We played with firecrackers and all kinds of other good things. I really cherish those memories and hope that my kids have those kinds of memories. We had a community of friends and a certain loyalty to one another and our hometown.

Now, it's rare to see a kid over 10 without a cell phone and not able to actively carry on 6 or more IM sessions simultaneously. Childhood obesity is also at all-time highs as well. I'm not blaming the obesity on the pervasiveness technology but many people do.

As I see it a huge cultural shift is underway. Kids have adopted technology, there's no denying it. Some have embraced it with a death-grip even. While most of the kids already know their text and IM friends from real-life interactions, many of us do not know in person our forum-buddies in discussing things from antiques to tweaking an operating system to do what we want to working on vintage Airstream trailers. Either way, there is a new community that has arisen on-line. No, it's not the same as a block-party with your neighbor, but it's more like hanging out on the porch with someone who is as interested and knowledgeable as you might ever hope to meet on your area of interest.

While I don't discourage anyone from going for a hike or camping with their kids, I'd be hesitant to keep the kids too far removed from technology. If they aren't familiar with it and communicating when their friends are, they might be missing out on the new social skills, potential work skills, and most importantly, community. It kind of reminds me of the family we grew up with whose parents didn't have a television and disavowed sugar; they'd come to visit us and we couldn't peel them away from the TV or the cookie jar. Like most things, it's all about balance. I think we need to respect many traditions and pastimes but don't forget to look around the present and the future.