[Have I used this post title before?]
Ok, maybe you will.
The buttons at a crosswalk don't work.* Seriously, check out this New York Times article titled, "For Exercise in New York Futility, Push Button".
*In some areas.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Contest Entry
I noticed this link today on the Google home page:
Explore the world of Google books. Play the game today.
So, I did. The game walks you through several questions and requires you to use your Google-searching skills to search through Google Books to find the answer. I completed the game in just a few minutes. At the end of the game, you have a chance to submit your scores, and enter a contest. Today's entry prompt was, "In 50 words or less, describe what you think reading will be like 100 years from now."
50 words - it's harder to write shorter works than long ones [["I made this longer letter only because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter." (Brownie points if you can identify the speaker and leave it in the comments.)]]. Then I thought about some of the poems Jill has been sharing on her blog, so I decided to write a free form (is that the right descriptor?) poem as my 50 word answer to the prompt:
Reading 100 years in the future -- what do you think?
Explore the world of Google books. Play the game today.
So, I did. The game walks you through several questions and requires you to use your Google-searching skills to search through Google Books to find the answer. I completed the game in just a few minutes. At the end of the game, you have a chance to submit your scores, and enter a contest. Today's entry prompt was, "In 50 words or less, describe what you think reading will be like 100 years from now."
50 words - it's harder to write shorter works than long ones [["I made this longer letter only because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter." (Brownie points if you can identify the speaker and leave it in the comments.)]]. Then I thought about some of the poems Jill has been sharing on her blog, so I decided to write a free form (is that the right descriptor?) poem as my 50 word answer to the prompt:
Reading -
What is that?
Today I gain knowledge
through a direct link to my mind.
Yesterday's books
are tedious -
why waste the time reading,
and thinking?
Just plug in and obtain.
The link gives me new thought
I can obtain with its key word.
Mind meld removes need to read.
Reading 100 years in the future -- what do you think?
Saturday, July 18, 2009
SR-71 Blackbird
Someone sent me a forward with the following link
http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/SR-71/index.htm
with this accompanying text from someone along the forward chain:
http://www.greatdanepromilitary.com/SR-71/index.htm
with this accompanying text from someone along the forward chain:
In 1968 (1967?) an SR-71 made an emergency landing at Grand Forks AFB (ND) and was “parked” between two B-52 hangers close to the N/S road that paralleled the base runway. The aircraft was completely visible to anyone using the road. Immediately after landing, GFAFB security established machine gun "nests" close to the plane.I decided to share this for the following reasons:
The two man crew could not exit the plane until a C-130 arrived from Edwards AFB with the ground support equipment and aircraft technicians to evacuate the crew and "fix" whatever the problem(s) were... Of course, everyone on the base came to see the 71 and security had to control traffic. After the "fixes" were accomplished (two days?), the 71 exited the base heading north. A few minutes later it returned at a very low altitude at tremendous speed in a fly by. It was awesome and was probably witnessed by about everyone on the base.
Eye candy for people who like airplanes
Grab your beverage and relax for a few minutes of awesome beauty.
The SR-71 was the creation of Kelly Johnson, Lockheed, Eisenhower and the Air Force. It was envisioned in the '50s, first flew in the early '60s, retired in the '80s, briefly brought back in the '90s.
In all, 13 units of the single seat A-12 were built, and 32 of the Pilot + Recon two seat SR-71 units were built. Five A-12 were lost, one is stored. Twelve two seaters were lost. The remaining 27 are on display around the USA . The closest is at Atwater, the old Castle AFB museum at Merced with 50 other classic warplanes. You probably have a better opportunity of viewing the one in San Diego . Ask me and I'll tell you where the others are. NY, OR, OH, DC, etc. I can find most answers to most questions. Just ask. Start with the 2000+ mph, the 80,000 feet + altitude. More if you wish.
So enjoy.
One more thing. The author of the captions to the picture in this video made one misstatement, due to youth. The U-2 Recon aircraft was created in 1955, flew operationally in 1956. Kelly thought the USSR would shoot it down in 18 months. Lucky us, it flew until Gary Powers was downed on 1 May 1960. But Kelly Johnson already had the go-ahead from Ike for the A-12. It first flew in 1962, JFK kept the manufacture of it active. No one told LBJ, 'cause everyone knew he would spill the secret. He wasn't told til the week after JFK left us. And sure enough, LBJ gave out the secret in a matter of months.
Anyhow, the most interesting, most exciting five years of my life were spent in the
program, as a KC-135 refueling pilot. Where the Blackbird went, we went. You will see several refuelings in the following.
- I love airplanes
- I think the SR-71 is an incredible plane
- I've seen a Blackbird in person (at the Evergreen Aviation Museum), along with walking inside the Spruce Goose
- I just read about the development of the SR-71 in The Wizards of Langley
- The pictures in the slideshow above are really cool.
- What better thing to post on my Technology & Innovation blog than one of the most advanced reconnaissance systems of its time (and then some)?
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Weekend Reads - 06/20/2009
Tweetpsych - The details about this Tweet-alyzer claims:
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Search Engine Wars - Unless you've been living under a technological rock these days, you've probably heard about the launch of two new online search engines. (And, if you've really been paying attention, you'll know that they don't claim to be search engines -- rather, a "decision engine" and a "computational knowledge engine". Bonus points if you know which one is which.) Microsoft launched Bing and the Wolfram team launched Wolfram Alpha.
I overheard a colleague talking about Bing's launch. He was very impressed with the high-quality images that grace the home screen. When you loaded the page, you may have noticed a few flashing squares in the image. As you move the mouse around, they'll re-appear, and you can hover over the squares and they provide additional information about the image, complete with links to even more info. To be honest, I noticed the picture (it's quite the contrast from the nearly all-white Google background), but I don't think I would have touted the image while describing the new decision engine from Microsoft... Anyway, the background images are cool -- and they change. I've only used Bing a few times so far; I've read a lot about it. After what appeared to be a successful launch, Bing started having problems with it search results -- explicit images and videos were getting included, and Norton's porn filter couldn't block them. Big no-no -- you don't want to be the "decision engine" that's NSFW or for your kids to use ... Microsoft changed a few things about how Bing works, and apparently has found a work-around. Keep an eye out for that if you use Bing; I'm sure they'll get the problem sorted out some more. Tough set-back for the launch, though.
Another recent launch was the Wolfram|Alpha "computational knowledge engine." The admittedly not-a-Google-killer engine, Wolfram|Alpha attempts to use semantic language processing to take your query and to create an output based on the data stored inside Wolfram|Alpha's brain. Good ol' W|A is self-aware--it knows who it is and how old it is. Initial complaints by users charged that (1) it didn't have the answers to their queries (granted, the search syntax is a little different from Google/Yahoo, and the system is "still learning") or (2) they couldn't see a reason to use the service. Then, perhaps as a precursor to Bing's porn woes, Wolfram|Alpha users pushed back when they took a moment to really read through W|A's Terms of Service. A CNET contributor discussed W|A's "mind-boggingly backward at best, and troubling at worst" Terms of Service:
Not to be left out of the headlines, Google made sure that people remembered how cool it still was, and updated some services, like its Contact manager. I'm still a fan of all of the Google services: GMail, Blogger, Reader, Search, Docs ...
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Something for the security conscious ComputerWorld did a review of an interesting software called Safe Calculator. The article says:
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THE URL Shortener Tracker I stumbled upon this the other day. Many of you have seen the bit.ly or ow.ly or tinyurl.com links floating around the Internet / Blogosphere. These services have exploded, especially with the need to share links via social networking sites/services like Twitter and Facebook. Someone is keeping a list of all the services available at this Google Docs spreadsheet.
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More on Bing's launch Some other reads:
More on Wolfram|Alpha I had been waiting for W|A to launch for some time [I waited for Bing too] before the day actually came. I missed the live web video of the launch (delayed from some glitches). Since the launch, I collected some links about W|A and am now finally getting around to posting the:
There's computer hacking, and then there's social engineering hacking.
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A cell-phone for Ashley [W.] B: a shock- and water-resistant phone.
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"Charging Gadget redefines power-walking" -- a portable power charger/generator for small devices
Communication is a window into a person’s mind, and the way a person talks can tell you a lot about how they think. Linguists have developed two methods to decoding the written word into a meaningful profile of a person’s cognitive processes.Using a Regressive Imagery Dictionary (RID) and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) to "build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their Tweets." Put in any Twitter user name, and it will provide a "score" of various psychological factors, such as Cognitive Content (e.g., Social Processes, Sensations, Cognitive Processes) and Primordial, Conceptual and Emotional Content (e.g., Concreteness, Social behavior, abstract thought). My analysis is here.
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Search Engine Wars - Unless you've been living under a technological rock these days, you've probably heard about the launch of two new online search engines. (And, if you've really been paying attention, you'll know that they don't claim to be search engines -- rather, a "decision engine" and a "computational knowledge engine". Bonus points if you know which one is which.) Microsoft launched Bing and the Wolfram team launched Wolfram Alpha.
I overheard a colleague talking about Bing's launch. He was very impressed with the high-quality images that grace the home screen. When you loaded the page, you may have noticed a few flashing squares in the image. As you move the mouse around, they'll re-appear, and you can hover over the squares and they provide additional information about the image, complete with links to even more info. To be honest, I noticed the picture (it's quite the contrast from the nearly all-white Google background), but I don't think I would have touted the image while describing the new decision engine from Microsoft... Anyway, the background images are cool -- and they change. I've only used Bing a few times so far; I've read a lot about it. After what appeared to be a successful launch, Bing started having problems with it search results -- explicit images and videos were getting included, and Norton's porn filter couldn't block them. Big no-no -- you don't want to be the "decision engine" that's NSFW or for your kids to use ... Microsoft changed a few things about how Bing works, and apparently has found a work-around. Keep an eye out for that if you use Bing; I'm sure they'll get the problem sorted out some more. Tough set-back for the launch, though.
Another recent launch was the Wolfram|Alpha "computational knowledge engine." The admittedly not-a-Google-killer engine, Wolfram|Alpha attempts to use semantic language processing to take your query and to create an output based on the data stored inside Wolfram|Alpha's brain. Good ol' W|A is self-aware--it knows who it is and how old it is. Initial complaints by users charged that (1) it didn't have the answers to their queries (granted, the search syntax is a little different from Google/Yahoo, and the system is "still learning") or (2) they couldn't see a reason to use the service. Then, perhaps as a precursor to Bing's porn woes, Wolfram|Alpha users pushed back when they took a moment to really read through W|A's Terms of Service. A CNET contributor discussed W|A's "mind-boggingly backward at best, and troubling at worst" Terms of Service:
Wolfram Alpha requires: "If you make results from Wolfram Alpha available to anyone else, or incorporate those results into your own documents or presentations, you must include attribution indicating that the results and/or the presentation of the results came from Wolfram Alpha." It's a fair request, but it may not be a reasonable request. Not if Wolfram Alpha wants people to actually make widespread use of the service.Something to be aware of if you consider using Wolfram|Alpha for any projects...
Not to be left out of the headlines, Google made sure that people remembered how cool it still was, and updated some services, like its Contact manager. I'm still a fan of all of the Google services: GMail, Blogger, Reader, Search, Docs ...
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Something for the security conscious ComputerWorld did a review of an interesting software called Safe Calculator. The article says:
It doesn't even require installation. All you do is enter the password at any time and click MS, and "safe mode" appears, changing all the calculator buttons to ones that would be useful for an app like this. Then, click on + to store and = to confirm. After that, you can execute the file, bring it back from hiding, or delete it.Interesting application - but why a goofy calculator? Does anyone actually use that application anymore?
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THE URL Shortener Tracker I stumbled upon this the other day. Many of you have seen the bit.ly or ow.ly or tinyurl.com links floating around the Internet / Blogosphere. These services have exploded, especially with the need to share links via social networking sites/services like Twitter and Facebook. Someone is keeping a list of all the services available at this Google Docs spreadsheet.
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More on Bing's launch Some other reads:
- Wired: Bing hides its best features
- CNET review
- CW review
- a funny picture of Google vs. Bing suggested search terms related to Linux
More on Wolfram|Alpha I had been waiting for W|A to launch for some time [I waited for Bing too] before the day actually came. I missed the live web video of the launch (delayed from some glitches). Since the launch, I collected some links about W|A and am now finally getting around to posting the:
- Easter Egg #1
- Easter Egg #2
- Wired article about W|A and the secret of time travel
- ComputerWorld article
- CNET review
- CW "answer engine vs. search engine"
- W|A already has ads
- Read the fine print
- Another reader perhaps summed it up best: "It looks like it'll be good for something, but I'm not yet sure how it will serve me, an ordinary person. It's not readily apparent how to use it most effectively. It may just be a matter of a learning curve for a new way of thinking about inquiries."
There's computer hacking, and then there's social engineering hacking.
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A cell-phone for Ashley [W.] B: a shock- and water-resistant phone.
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"Charging Gadget redefines power-walking" -- a portable power charger/generator for small devices
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Twitt-o-Scope
Found this cool visualization tool online called Twittoscope from this guy, Quasimondo.
As the site explains:
Interesting, eh?
As the site explains:
This little widget analyzes the lengths of a Twitter user's tweets and maps them in the form of a histogram. [...] The interesting result is that there are indeed different patterns of user types to be found. Many have a peak of lengths around the right side which is the 140 character limit of Twitter. Others have a peak rather on the left side which marks short tweets with just a few words. Robots or automated news services often have a very small distribution of different lengths. People who have just a few tweets will show a rather erratic pattern with many holes whilst oldtimers or people who tweet a lot will have a more continouus look.I thought it was pretty cool - here's our results:
As an additional info I've added the follower/following ratio as a horizontal bar below the histogram. The bigger the left yellow bar is the more followers a user has compared to the users he or she is following.
Interesting, eh?
Friday, May 15, 2009
You won't believe this
- NASA interns steal moon rocks. Yes, that's right - they snuck into a secure NASA facility, donned white neoprene suits, hacked some codes on the doors, and walked out with a 600-pound safe containing moon rocks that had previously undergone scientific tests. The FBI has their report is HERE.
- The artist's code even the CIA can't break. There is a sculpture in the yard at Langley that has an inscription written on its wall.
It's part of a sculpture called Kryptos, created by DC artist James Sanborn. He got the commission in 1988, when the CIA was constructing a new building behind its original headquarters. The agency wanted an outdoor installation for the area between the two buildings, so a solicitation went out for a piece of public art that the general public would never see. Sanborn named his proposal after the Greek word for hidden. The work is a meditation on the nature of secrecy and the elusiveness of truth, its message written entirely in code.
Three out of the four sections have been cracked, but the fourth remains elusive. (See Kryptos I, Krypots II, and Kryptos III.) - While you're at it, take a tour. The CIA has a "public" museum, with declassified artifacts. However, as its website notes:
Please note that because the Museum is located on the CIA compound, it is not open to the public for tours.
So, click through the link above and take a tour of DC's only free museum to which you can't actually go. - Themed Wedding of the Year?, AKA "Jedi Do".
Groom Duncan Thomson dressed as space hero Han Solo while Sammi Gardiner turned out as Princess Leia.
And, to top it off, one of the kids in the wedding was dressed like R2D2. @jill636 pointed out the good C3P0 in the pic, too.
Sammi’s meteorite ring was engraved: “May the 4th be with you” — in tribute to the line: “May the force be with you.” A supporting cast of 50 Jedis and Sith Lords saw Chewbacca as best man, while Darth Vader made a speech. - Under the Sea!
When the new 3D Ocean was added to Google Earth 5 back in February, my first impression was that the experience of going through the ocean was like being in a submarine. A week ago, André, the author of WikiSailing, let me test his latest creation: a submarine simulator for the Google Earth plugin. You can now try out André's sub simulator at: www.Sea-Seek.com which is an on-line nautical guide which provides information and photos about coastal navigation and ports. Just scroll down and look on the lower right for "Virtual Dive".
The kicker? "You can choose to be a submarine or a killer whale." Sweet. - Other Interesting Links Some of the links here came from this post. More to see here.
- And don't forget: my new TV You won't believe it, but I got a new TV for our condo. Now if we only subscribed to cable TV... Guess we'll have to suffice with HDMI or S-video out of the laptop.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Weekend Reads: 05/09/2009
Google Updates
New Search: Wolfram Alpha
I think this has the potential to be game-changing in the online Search arena. I wonder what they will do to promote the site, get early adopters, and spread the word. I just happened to stumble across it through a feed I read, and I'm pretty sure none of my friends have heard of this. I'll post an update when it goes live. For now, click through the screenshots CNET posted (first link above)
- Latitude Apps, check out my location badge (I added one to this page)
- Contact Manager, import from your other applications
New Search: Wolfram Alpha
I think this has the potential to be game-changing in the online Search arena. I wonder what they will do to promote the site, get early adopters, and spread the word. I just happened to stumble across it through a feed I read, and I'm pretty sure none of my friends have heard of this. I'll post an update when it goes live. For now, click through the screenshots CNET posted (first link above)
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