NorthStarNerd.Org

Chief Twitter Correspondent Roland Needs Help!

The Northstar Nerd needs to add a new follow! (click to maximize ... via GoComics). Link to my Tweets.

Engineering for America: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

I grew up in northern Minnesota, and am building a home in Duluth. My involvement with the Corps of Engineers has been limited to their fantastic Lake Superior Marine Museum. I never cease to love spending time at this small facility at the entrance to the Duluth harbor. However, the Corps of Engineers mission is much broader than educating the Northstar Nerd about Great Lakes Shipping and the engineering work it requires to keep the shipping lanes open.

With that preamble I would like to introduce you the Army Corps of Engineers blog, Building Strong. The blog's author is none other than Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, the Army Chief of Engineers and Commanding General. I highly recommend a trip over to his blog, and a RSS subscription. The Corps does some fine engineering throughout the world.

One of the more recent blog entries I had to share with my Dad, a retired M.D. and front line doctor with the Marine Corps during the Korean War. While it is tempting to think of the Corps of Engineers as only dealing with the "normal" technical projects, this would be a mistake. One of their recent efforts has been to design a special climbing wall for wounded warriors. Link and read ... but take a look at the image below and you'll get the idea. Check Out Blog Quest 2.0 and my Engineering Learning Wiki for other technical blogs I have reviewed.

I also thought I would take this opportunity to add some links to a small part of military history in which I played a very, very minor role:

• Boxer 22 (largest air search and rescue mission ever by the US military)
  and
• Captain Ben Danielson is Home (Vietnam MIA)

The photos in the right column from the USS Nimitz were sent to me by Lt. Commander Brian Danielson, Ben's son.

However, back to the review at hand (Building Strong). Although the blog's name is only just that ... a name ... the image below shows just how true that name rings.

Droids Shall Inherit the Earth

I don't normally post YouTube commercials, but my curiosity has definitely been piqued by the "anti Apple". Android from Google, Verizon and Motorola has major buzz. In addition, this commercial is wicked cool. Enjoy the graphic, also! (click to maximize)

 

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Photo Journalism 101 (story + images + music + animation = success)

You may ask the question ... what gives the Northstar Nerd the "right" to speak about the topic of photo journalism? After all, I've never worked for a newspaper (unless you count my high school paper, The Exonian). However with the advent of Web 2.0, the ability to tell a story, an ear for music and Photopeach, the Northstar Nerd has become Photopeach's leading "most featured content creator"!

Okay ... so what's my secret ... and what's Photopeach?

• First, PhotoPeach is a service that allows the end user to create web mashups that include your own uploaded photographs, music (including YouTube) and Flash animation.
• Second, you don't need to be web geek to create the photo animations. You can let PhotoPeach make its best guess ... and before you know it you'll see your images magnifying it ... moving ip, etc.
• Third ... Music, Music, Music!

The music you use is almost as critical as your images. The proper music drives your creation; the wrong music will bore your audience. For instance ... for each of these creations the music supports the story and images:

• One Armed Skier Conquers City of the Lake Loppet, I used "Eye of the Tiger from Rocky".
• Northstar of America, I used "North to Alaska"
• Triumph of the Proletariat (or how to bag leaves), I used Soviet Anthem music

You get the idea ... the music drives the content and the story. This brings up another point. Photopeach allows one to add captions. A brief animation caption will work wonders.

Now comes one of the most important parts ... your marketing. If you are taking photos of an event, you must create your animated show by the next morning. When folks who attended the event return home, Google will be their best friend. They want to see pictures of what they just particpated in ... first to the web will show up in the top Google results.

In addition, don't forget to microblog on Twitter, and contact show sponsors, web services etc. If your site does not carry advertising (such as my site, NorthstarNerd.Org), you would be surprised how many folks will link and add stories to your content.

For my own content, I've been picked up and promoted by ...

• Branson Air Show by the Branson Airport & Chamber of Commerce
• Sunrise Over Suomi by the Finnish American Minnesota Heritage Society
  and
• Blackflag Marathon by SkinnySki.Com

You may view all of my photoshows via Northstar Nerd TV.

Here are three examples:

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Project Polar Bear on PhotoPeach

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One Armed Skier Conquers City of the Lakes Loppet on PhotoPeach

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Old Testament (China) on PhotoPeach

Normandy Battleground Photos ... then and now!

Let me invite my online friends to take a look at these dramatic photographs of Normandy. You will get to see World War II battleground photos juxtaposed with the same exact view from today's France. My father is both a World War II and Korean War Veteran. Thanks, Dad.

The link and one screenshot are given below.

http://opendoorway.multiply.com/video/item/172/Normandia-ontemehojePARTE1

Adding Yourself to Your Own Twitter List

My thanks to C|Net which is where I learned this feature ... it's not obvious. I was one of the lucky (?) ones recently who Twitter gave access to their new feature, Twitter Lists. This ability allows me to create lists along whatever topic lines I desire. My first list is people who work in the collaboration space for large corporations and organizations. Just like Twitter accounts, you may "follow" Twitter lists. Hopefully this ability will make it easier to filter content on Twitter. Here is the link to my list.

• Twitter List: Collaboration 2.0
  
Focus: Individuals within organizations who work upon internal collaboration projects ... thus not consultants, not Web 2.0 companies, etc.

One darn inconvenient task, and hard to find is ... adding yourself to your own Twitter list. After all, why would I not add myself to the list given above? The task was not obvious ... once again, my thanks to C|Net for their post. I've improved upon their content by adding the screenshot given below. Click to maximize. (Learn about our benchmarking council's Google Wave test)

Riding the Google Wave: Test #2

Our benchmarking group invites you to "ride the wave" with us. If you already have a Google Wave account, work for a large organization and would like to work through a formal test of Google Wave and its possible use for collaboration and sharing, you're most welcome to join us.

Please send your request to RichardHoeg<at>GMail.Com. Please include a link to your LinkedIn public profile.  While our goal is not to exclude folks from our test, the web can be a nasty place ... we want to protect our other participants. Thank you for your understanding. (learn about our first test)

Our test will examine the following statement via Google Wave and eMail (i.e. we will perform the same test using new and old media):

• What are the main benefits for a company to have a Web 2.0 presence and what can be considered best practices in doing so? 

Our first test was over the course of two hours last night with about 20 people surfing the wave in real time. It was confusing. Here is my post about that Wave (test #1). Here is are starting point for test #2 (click to maximize)

Impressions of a Google Wave

I promised I would blog on my impressions of tonight's test of Google Wave. Approximately sixteen of us from a number of different companies attempted to do a formal test of Google Wave. The theme for the evening was corporate use of LinkedIn. However, our goal was not so much to discuss LinkedIn, but rather to have a set topic for our Wave. Here are my impressions;

• Our wave started at 7 pm Central time. It was scheduled for one hour
• The wave just keeps on rolling ... 193 messages have been posted in about 2 hours
• While we tried to stick to our topic, we ended up often discussing Wave itself
• Confusion was often apparent. When you can see five or six people typing in "real time" it gets easy to become distracted from your current thought.
• None of us really understand what a Wave is yet. It's not a wiki; it's not email, and the group is evolving.

I was hoping to post a number of screenshots, but I now understand that would violate the privacy of the group. We did have some good discussions, which obviously I want to respect. One idea that comes to mind after this experience is it might be a good idea to pre-build a wave. In other words, if someone created content which a group could critique ... the end result might be very valuable.

(see information about our group's Google Wave Test # 2 ... including an invite)

Here are a few Wave resources I found in preparing for tonight:

• An business Wave example from SAP Research: Gravity
• A good list of Google Gadgets to get you started.
• A Google Wave Quick Reference Guide
• Google Wave Extensions & Gadgets List (from Google)

Please note that the guide is not my work, but the original site now seems to crash (docs.docstoc.com)

Finally, here is one screenshot from tonight's Wave before we got started. Click to maximize.

Software Quick Reference Guides

I'm not certain if I've ever mentioned these guides before, but if you're ever in need of a free, downloadable quick reference guide ... Custom Guides is the place to go. You'll find software guides for most common applications hosted upon both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.

Oops .. Sorry Dad .. Missed Minnesota While Flying my A320 Airbus

This is almost funny, except it could have been tragic (fuel, aircraft handling, other jets, etc). Two Northwest / Delta pilots of an Airbus A320 "missed" Minneapolis on Wednesday and took a "Sunday drive" over central Wisconsin. Now I know many folks from both coasts consider Minnesota "Fly Over Land", but this is taking it to the extreme. Anyhow, the flight from San Diego missed Minneapolis (we really are a big city) and flew on into Wisconsin

Traffic controllers tried for 78 minutes to contact the wayward jet ... while it maintained radio silence and flew past my fair city by 150 miles. While the speculation is the pilots fell asleep, I have a much more logical explanation ... maybe the pilots are Green Bay Packer Fans who are upset the Vikings now have Brett Favre!

• Read the full article via the Wall Street Journal

And of course the classic cover from the New Yorker Magazine ... a New Yorker's view of America. Notice Minneapolis is not even on the map! I think we're somewhere up in Canada.