NorthStarNerd.Org

I Feel Like Shouting!

Given I have a cabin in the Suomi Hills, I need to join "Mieskuoro" ... or the Shouting Finns. National Public Radio describes them in this manner:

Unannounced and unsmiling, they walk into the Dupont Circle Park (Washington DC) wearing black suits, white shirts and black ties made from bicycle inner tubes. The 23 men follow one another in single file around the fountain. They do not sing the words — they shout them. (full story)

These guys define "cool" with an attitude! Thus, I give you shouts from Finland:

• H.Y.V.A. (make certain you wait out the silence!)

Make certain you see Stephen's link in the comments to this post ... a video shout! m

Researching a "thread" or "seed" of an idea!

Last night I hit the jackpot in terms of discovering new resources. The key was understanding how to follow up on useful information ... to expand it to become even more new valuable knowledge for me. Here is how the process went ... and what I discovered.

Really Simple Sidi posted on Microsoft's new data visualization tool, DataDepot. Many of you may remember I already have an interest in data visualization, and I was even featured in an interview by the NY Times on the same subject. I subscribe to Sidi's blog via RSS (learn more).

As I was convinced that Microsoft's DataDepot was a somewhat new service, I immediately decided to Google the service, but not in the manner you might expect. In this instance, I wanted to learn whom might be the netizens who already had posted about DataDepot.  In other words, this was my chance to learn about people who are both smart, linked and well informed. Thus, I did a Google linked search. See the screenshots at the bottom of this post, but the concept is easy. I browse over to Advanced Google Search, and paste the DataDepot web address into bottom window ... "find pages that link to a page". If you are truly exploring something rather new, the web sites which come up in your results should represent services / blogs / etc. which represent sites "in the know".

I now spend time researching my Google results, but not just from the vantage point of my original query (DataDepot), but in terms of whether the resulting sites have expanded value. In my case, I only turned up 32 sites that linked to DataDepot. This confirmed my original hypothesis that Microsoft's DataDepot was either rather knew, or still at least unknown. Time to take a look at the resulting sites.

Those results ultimately led me to this content (some via a link):

• eScience at Microsoft- a blog of research and science out on the edge.
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• Seed Magazine - defines itself as "science is culture" ... fascinating stuff
  • Cribsheet - great downloadable pdf's of science concepts / areas.
  • Mind2008 - video presentations by revolutionary science thought leaders

I could go on, but the end result if I have a huge new amount of data to explore ... some for work (data visualization and DataDepot) ... and some for just the sake of science (Seed). 

click to expand either image to full sized

 

Blog Quest 2008: Civil Engineering and LabView

In my continuing quest to find good engineering blogs which are run by individuals ... as oppsoed to companies, I bring you four excellent additions:

• Invent Civil - While I personally know very little about civil engineering, I can tell that Skylar Van Kruistum is maintaining a high quality blog. He even has a link to a tool he created, which has an AutoCAD script to streamline the process of defining and drawing subcatchments in EPA-SWMM. Skylar writes me to also recommend Urban Workbench.
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• Urban Workbench - This blog describes itself as the intersection between Urban Planning, Design and Civil Engineering. True to its name, the site is intended to act as a workbench, an area where ideas are fleshed out, concepts are discussed and debated, and new technologies are reported on and reviewed.
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• Internet Law 2.0 - Given the importance of open source licensing, take a look.

The final new blog for Engineering Blog Quest 2008 (see blogs already reviewed) focuses upon LabView. As a veteran Lego League coach of many years, I always like to see more information in this domain

• Labview Tutorials for Developers - This blog is only a few days old, but I found in via a Google Search Bot. If Aniket keeps up his good work on Labview tutorials, he will rival one of my other favorite blogs, Blinkdagger for MatLab.

As always, I will add each of these blogs to my Engineering Learning Wiki blogs section.

Discoveries and Breakthroughs Inside Science

I've known about DBIS science news / video reports for a while, but it really bothered me that although a superior service, it did not have a RSS feed for updated content. Using the free RSS generation service from FeedFire, I was able to just drop in my desired url, and have a feed scraped from the html page. Try FeedFire some time; it's dirt easy to use.

Thus, now that I've built my feed, here is Discoveries and Breakthroughs Inside Science.

Supported by a coalition of scientific and engineering professional societies and a generous contribution from the National Science Foundation, DBIS promotes awareness of and appreciation for the role science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals play in our daily lives by providing short, accurate, and scientifically reviewed scince news videos to local TV stations throughout the United States.

Here is a screen shot of a recent science news story ... Measuring Lightning. I will add DBIS to the Engineering Learning Wiki section ... Engineering for Children.

Click upon the image for a full sized view.

Karen and Matt Kennedy!

Molly and I are exhausted, but thrilled to have a new son-in-law! Here is a bit of Karen's and Matt's special day. Click upon any thumbnail for a full sized view.

My Campaign Promise: Two Pocket Protectors for every Nerd in America

Last night was the final debate ... gee ... Obama ... McCain ... or the Northstar Nerd? I have run no vicious attack advertisements, and I promise ... two pocket protectors for every nerd in America! You can even cast your vote for my cause via CreateDebate. See my prior post with a link to my debate.

Last week while on a business trip to the East Coast, WNYC (New York City's NPR radio station) mentioned that a typical citizen in Minnesota (the home of the Northstar Nerd) has the great fortune to be seeing/listening to the most political advertisements of any citizen in the USA. The combination of being a battleground state for the presidential election and having a close senatorial contest means the PAC money is flowing into our region like crazy. Lucky us.

It's now T minus 2 days till I marry off my daughter. I'm on vacation today and obviously thinking heavy thoughts!

Time to go marry off my daughter!

Hi Folks ... I won't be posting for a while. This Saturday I marry off my daughter, Karen. Matt is a most welcome addition to the family.  Click upon either image to view full sized.

Engineering Lectures via the Web

I promised I would get back to providing some more results from the search results for "Distinguished Engineering Lecture Series" ... it just took me a while!  However, at this point I've added everything to the Engineering Learning Wiki and it's search engine for seminars.

If your desire is for computer science lectures to monitor what's happening in this field:

• Computer Science at Columbia
• Computer Science at the University of Illinois

For something quite different, link to this series sponsored by Nokia on how Cyber-physical computer systems (CPS) interact with physical processes:

• Nokia Distinguished Lecture Series

Finally, for the Technology Management gurus out there, you should investigate the Berkeley School of Information Distinguished Lecture Series It's flavor is how technology advances are having an effect on society.

DeFragging Your Brain!

Many people understand that occasionally one needs to DeFrag your hard drive ... remove and reorganize the clutter ... then add new content. The same holds true for your brain. In slightly less than a month I will head to Denver, Colorado for DeFrag 2008. This conference bills itself as accelerating the "aha" moment in Enterprise 2.0. I will be both a speaker and panelist ... in other words I will engage and participate. My topics will revolve around social software in the enterprise.

My question to you ... have you defragged your brain recently. While this conference may not be perfect for you, please understand that my participation at DeFrag is on my own nickel and vacation time. As technologists we have a responsability to maintain our knowledge. For example, this past Spring I spent most of a weekend at BarCamp Minnesota. I don't want to imply that my company does not provide me technical training. In fact, next month on my company's dime I will attend some Sharepoint 2007 training. However, if you want to succeed, you need to invest in yourself. Think of it as an ongoing research and development project. In these tough economic times, you will be glad you did!

Finally, if you want to attend DeFrag 2008, use my speaker code "rh1" and save $200 off the conference fee.

Expanding Your Research Horizons

I used to think of LinkedIn as a glorified Rolodex. Although it was useful to maintain contacts with business associates, there was little value that a participant derived from this social network. Although it was nice to see how many contacts you had, other than consultants who were trying to sell themselves by answering questions, the value to the discussions was almost nill. Thus,the question ... what is changing my mind? The answer is their groups (and groups search / updates). My contacts, although great people, were generally folks whose work and "personal stories / research" I already knew. LinkedIn was not helping advance my knowledge.

While this observation almost sounds trite, and too obvious. If you are involved in benchmarking and researching new ideas, the groups search capability now allows one to explore domains and people outside of your own contacts. It is exactly that need which one needs filled ... to get outside of what and whom you know ... to move forward.

At present I have about 250 contacts. By using the new weekly update email, I find it valuable to see what groups my network of contacts is linking to. As an example, I recently found the Web 2.0 and Mapping Social Network group. Some research revealed that this group (many similar titled groups exist) actually has an active membership that wants to exchange knowledge. Although I don't work in Silicon Valley, via the groups web site I am able to participate in their meet-ups and watch some of the quick demos of new ideas.

As always, you get what you put into any organization, but I am now able to find new groups with which to exchange ideas. I always scan the membership up front, checking the kinds of companies and job titles from which the membership is taken.