NorthStarNerd.Org

President Obama Visits Honeywell (Veterans Job Program)

Normally I keep my blog and my job separate, but today was not an ordinary day! President Obama came to Minnesota and specifically my Honeywell manufacturing plant to announce his new jobs program for U.S. Veterans.  Given the company encouraged us to bring cameras, here is my post from a proud 27+ year Honeywell employee! It's a great company, and during the past 12 months we've hired over 900 veterans!

Let me pause for a few moments and extend a personal thank you to our men and women in uniform. My first cousin, Richard Fraser, was killed in the 9/11 attacks. Thus, I appreciate everything which our U.S. military does to keep us free and maintain our way of life.  However, with all the horrible things in this world, it is still a beautiful place. See an earlier post labeled: "The Dads Fought, the Sons Build".

Back to the Honeywell event at Golden Valley Minnesota. Hiring veterans was the major theme of the President's speech and he announced a new veterans jobs program. In short, if a vet is trained to handle complex jobs for the military, why are they often required to get new civilian certifications to perform the identical jobs upon finishing their enlistment?? President Obama cited the example of an Army Medic who received a Bronze Star for gallantry on the battlefield. In Iraq this young man provided medical care while under fire on the battlefield, yet upon returning home he could not qualify to be an ambulance attendant.  This is wrong, and I support the President's program.

Here are a few photos and videos from Obama's visit to Honeywell. By a stroke of good luck I ended up only 20 yards from the podium. Click upon any photo to view at full size.

First two photos: Honeywell Line & Press Setup

• I had to stand in line for two hours, and then another two hours inside.
• There were three elevated platforms with media. Each platform had about 30 camera persons.

 

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The third & fourth photos: National Anthem & Veterans

• A local high school sang the national anthem. In addition, we all said the Pledge of Allegiance. Honeywell Veterans were given seats of honor on two sets of temporary bleachers. The rest of us stood!

 

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The fifth photo: President Obama

• I also managed to shake hands with Governor Dayton, Senator Franken, and Representative Ellison. They came by where I was standing.

 
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And now my YouTube videos of the event. Given how close I was to the President, and the fact that I am 6' 2" tall, I could hold my camera up to a height of 7' 6" and then angle the LCD viewfinder down. Thus I could get my camera above most everyone else's camera!

The videos are:

• National Anthem
• Arrival, Introductions & Jokes
• Veterans Job Program
• 360 Crowd Pan
• Speech Finale

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National Anthem:

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Arrival, Introductions & Jokes:

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Veterans Job Program

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360 Crowd Pan

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Speech Finale

Home Network Security Management via Fing

Happy Memorial Day! Holidays mean having extra time, and towards that end for me it meant I took a 45 mile bike ride on a Monday morning. This afternoon has been dedicated to computer clean-up and maintenance. Aside from generating a new pristine hard disk back-up, I also found time to work through and re-organize my digital photos. With those tasks completed, there is time for a quick blog post before a holiday barbeque.

I'll assume that anyone reading this blog post has anti-virus software enabled and current on your computer. However, it is easy to move beyond that basic setup and monitor what devices and services are running via your network. Even if you believe your home network is secure, spending these few short minutes insures you have more knowledge about what is really running on your home network.

Your first step should be to install Fing from Overlook Software. This great free app / service runs on Android, iOS and Windows. After a simple install, you can fire it up and find out what is connected to your network. Hopefully, you will only find the devices you expect to see. Here are a few screenshots from my iPad of my home network via Fing. Click upon any image to view at full size.

For my own security, I've blocked out my I.P. number and machine addresses in all the screenshots. In the first screenshot, you are able to see what is present on my network. 

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In the second screenshot demonstrates the ability to pull details on any device connected to your home network.

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Finally, if you selected the option for "scan services" shown in the second screenshot, one may inspect what public web / network services are being run from your device. Once again, hopefully the services will map to your expectations (i.e. the only services being run are those services you have enabled). Remember, public web services represent potential ways your home network could be compromised.

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The final screenshot raises some obvious questions including:

• What if I'm not a network wonk?
• What do these services mean and do?

Thankfully, there are some good resources available on the web to help answer that question. The two services linked below were recommended by my own cyber-security team at work. Thus, if you find a service running, and you're not certain what function it performs on your computer, then link, investigate and learn. Remember, if you find something running which is either suspect, or not desirable, you may disable any Windows service via the control panel ... select <Control Panel>, then <Administrative Services>, and finally <Component Services>. At that point you need to find the service in question, right click and disable.

Thus, here are the two services for more research on public network services which might be running on your computer:

• Common Windows Processes
• Windows XP Services (normally also maps to Windows 7)

Friends Don't Let Birds Fly Drunk!

Great to know that the scientific community has published another study to confirm what many of us have always known. Birds that eat too many mountain ash berries in the Fall get drunk! Ever since a young boy I have enjoyed watching flocks of evening grosbeaks gorge themselves on berries and get drunk. I guess this research study confirms we need designated flyers when the birds head out partying!

Research on Drunk Cedar Waxwings

 

By the Power of Sir Isaac Newton

Engineering Super Heros! Have to love it ... move over Fantastic Four! 

Huge accolades go out to the School of Engineering and Applied Science at George Washington University which just created ... drum roll ... RobotronMan! By day, Professor Ben-Tzvi is a mild mannered mechanical engineering professor, but when calamity threatens the world, it's RobotronMan to the rescue.

I first learned about this comic strip which features engineers as super heros via the Scientific American Blog. In their blog they mention and link to a study from Intel which notes: "only 28 percent of teenagers had ever considered becoming engineers and that only 5 percent associated engineering with the word “cool.”"

One week from Saturday my youngest son will graduate from Rose-Hulman with his BSEE. His senior design project was a robotic manufacturing arm which was sponsored and will be used by a local Indiana company. When I'm down in Terre Haute next weekend for graduation, I'll look for budding new superheros! In our family's case ... the creation of a new engineering superhero ... it all began with Legos! As parents and adults we all need to set examples. I coached a Lego Robotics Team for five years. This Spring is very rewarding as many of these young men are graduating from college and starting their first professional engineering jobs. 

Please do your part to encourage our children to at least consider the sciences.  Here are the first three screens from the Adventures of RobotronMan. I hope you'll link and read the entire series!

Screen #1: RobotronMan (click to maximize)

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Screen #2: RobotronMan (click to maximize)

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Screen #3: RobotronMan (click to maximize)

Read the rest of the Adventures of RobotronMan!

A Doodle of a Calendar!

Every once and a while a new web based tool comes along which not only solves a need, but in a fantastic and unobtrusive manner. Doodle is that kind ot tool. Let me level set the scenario for you ...

How many times have you experienced this situation?

• You need to set a meeting date with many people from outside your organization (work or private life). Given everyone is not on the same computer calendar system, doing a busy search to find an open date is not possible.
• One unlucky person reaches out to everyone via email or phone and says ... when are you available? 
• This same person hopes everyone gets back in touch, and then must integrate all the feedback into an acceptable meeting date.

I never want to be the meeting coordinator. However, while planning a test of Google Hangout with a number of colleagues from other large corporations, one peer suggested using Doodle. I decided why not, let's give the service a try ...

Doodle allows you to create possible meeting scenarios and quiz everyone online at to their availability. Your co-meeting participants give their feedback, which everyone can see. Finally, the meeting host picks the date which works for the most people.

Finally, Doodle is free, and does not even require an account to test and try the service. You will need to give your email address if you want to be sent links which allow you admin rights for your meeting. In short, in one test I've become a Doodle believer.

Here are a few screenshots from Doodle. I personally think it's worth creating an account, but it is not necessary. Click upon any image to view at full size.

 

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And the other two tabs ...
(image comment: Doodle actually allows for more than three date options!) 

 

Seeing Creativity

There is an art to looking at the world through eyes different from everyone else. If you can combine this ability with practical business sense, the world will be at your feet. While I don't normally just re-post what I view via other blogs, this is worth every moment of your time.

One of most cliche photos in the world is a tourist at the Tower of Pisa. The learning tower just screams out with a photo opportunity which says ... "I'm holding up the tower!" However, what if what all these people are really doing is just "trolling for high fives".

Thanks for Laughing Squid and the Romanian blog, Jeg. Take a look at the photo given below, and then watch the video. Jeg truly sees creativity! The video immediately follows the photo.

And the video! Enjoy, think, learn and be creative!

 

Northwoods Photos

I've used Picasa for some time now, but decided it was about time I also had a Flickr photostream. I love to take photos either on long bike rides through the northwoods, or as SkiCam Man during cross-country ski races. Here are two photos from today's bike ride. The weather was nasty (42F with 20 mph winds off Lake Superior). However, there is often beauty during ugly weather. Click upon either image to view at full size.

The Red Barn was just screaming at me to stop from my ride and take its photo. The red really stands out against the nasty sky. For the second photo my bike outlines the Lakewood Plunge. In the next 2.9 miles I'll lose 525 in elevation ... super fun. Albeit I had to climb many rolling hills on back roads to first reach that peak.

Both photos utilize HDR photography where I combine three exposures into one finished picture.

NorthStar Nerd Flickr Photostream

 

 

Blogging via the iPad and Blogsy

I've been blogging since 2004, with the past six years on the Typepad platform. This Summer, I'll surpass 500,000 page view on Typepad. Thus, I hope you will grant me the favor of considering me a serious blogger, with a decent readership.

For the past 15 months I have been searching for a good app that would allow me to create posts via my iPad. My wait has ended with Blogsy. In fact, this is my first official blog post using Blogsy.

The obvious question for this review, why do I like this app? Quite simply, it works! While not free ($4.99), the cost is inexpensive, and well worth the price. Although I use Typepad, Blogsy works with most of the major blogging platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress, etc. One may also easily connect the service to your favorite photo and video sharing services like Picasa, Flickr, YouTube and Vimeo. Thus, it is easy to pull multi-media content into your blog. Finally, you may import images directly from the iPad's native photo album app.

Although the service allows Google image searches from within the app, many web sites do not allow the Blogsy API to directly import photos, etc. My approach, which I actually prefer, is to directly use Safari, and save my images via Picasa or Google Image Search directly to the iPad photo album app. From that point it is an easy import into Blogsy.

Here are a few annotated screenshots. In addition, you may wish to watch a few of the Blogsy self-help videos.

This screenshot shows the built-in browser. I used Google Search to find the Blogsy videos, and then dragged the url into my post with the associated word.

Now I have presented two screenshots I took while blogging, and the process for posting them to my blog. I just tap the flower icon, and bring up my saved images. From that point, I press and drag the desired image to my account (Typepad). Once uploaded, I drag back the image to wherever I want it in my blog. (click or press upon any image to view full sized)

This process is a bit complex to explain in words, but actually quite easy to perform. The self-help videos explain and show the process very well.

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Here are two more screenshots. One from Google Image Search on my iPad, and the other while logged in to my Picasa account. I just press and save. From that point Blogsy does the rest.

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That's it for this first post. While not perfect. I only purchased Blogsy last night. My investment of time in learning the user interface is about one hour. Much of this time was spent playing around with this post.

 

Communal Reading of the News

In the world of smartphones and tablet computers, have we lost "communal news"? Like most of my readers, I love these devices which keep us connected to the world around us. However, in our connectivity are we losing some of our ability to connect with each other?

While riding BART this past week during a visit to Silicon Valley, time and again I noticed parents who were absorbed in their smartphones, while their young children sat next to them. The children were still actively exploring the environment around them with curious looks towards fellow passengers, and watching the passing views out the window. How long will this curiosity last? What message is being taught?

Here are two images which reinforce this view. The first photo is from a phenomenal blog named "The Passion of Former Days". The author's byline says it all: "Exploring old photographs and posters to connect with the people who lived, laughed, and loved in years gone by."

The second image is typical of what one would see anywhere in the world. Reading is still a communal exprience, but my how the experience has changed. We're together, but are we?

Click upon either image to view full sized. 

Then (original post: Reading the Papers)

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Now (original post: Facebook Before Tap Water)

Photograph taken by Kainaz Amaria of Bloomberg Communications

I'm as guilty as the next person. I own a Android smartphone, a Kindle Fire and an iPad (not to mention my laptop). Like you my reader, I need to disconnect and connect!

In closing, Anna Krentz's blog, The Passion of Former Days, is really worth a visit. I only discovered her work earlier this week, and it's already one of my favorite sites. Here is one final example from her blog illustrating my theme of the communal read, Something Just Broke (the assassination of President John F. Kennedy)

Are You a Harvard Hypocrite?

Understand that this post is being written by a Dartmouth man, but in truth this topic has little to do with either school. A better question would be, do you believe in open access to knowledge?

Some background: a few technical societies such as the IEEE and ASME control technical research publishing. Even if an engineer contributes a research article at no charge to one of these organizations (the norm), the publishers in turn charge a HUGE subscription cost for something they received for free.

Why Harvard? An article in Time Magazine notes that Harvard now spends $3.75 million per year on subscriptions to research journals. The Guardian explains: "Exasperated by rising subscription costs charged by academic publishers, Harvard University has encouraged its faculty members to make their research freely available through open access journals and to resign from publications that keep articles behind paywalls"

Why a Hypocrite? Ever wonder how much money Harvard yields from the Harvard Business Review? In the same news release about the cost of journals, Harvard did not offer lower prices for the Harvard Business Review.

Conclusion: I agree with Harvard and their faculty, but it would be nice if they followed their own advice! The concept of open access is not new, and many good sources exist to support this initiative including the Creative Commons, the Internet Archive, and the Directory of Open Access Journals.

Ultimately, we need institutions like Harvard to take the lead and "just say no" to publishers. It is reasonable to receive a fee for compiling research, but the cost has become to high. Quoting from Time and the Harvard memo: "some journals cost the school up to $40,000 every year, with the two top publishers increasing the price of content 145% over the last six years".

I actually have personal experience with this issue. About ten years ago I worked at turning my company's physical technical library into a resource which might be used globally via the web. The prices which the technical societies and services demanded were exhorbitant. In my case, I invited the vendors in one by one, and explained how we needed more reasonable pricing. In one instance I ended a business relationship with a quality vendor. One year later when they came back with a more realistic bid, we recontracted for the services. 

My work experience showed playing hardball was required. We all need to take the Harvard approach. I just wish Harvard would also lower their price for HBR and set a good example.

If you have research, please submit your work via open access. Thank you.

In closing a view of the Dartmouth Library ... better Green than Crimson!