A New Learning Tool: siftables

This MIT student is working on new human to computer interfaces. It is a great presentation.

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This Week in Tech Reminds Me of Home

I listened to most of this weeks episode of  TWIT on the way down to the office today on my iPhone.   I didn't listen to it all because I wanted to hear some of the coverage of the President's speech last night.

The panel on the podcast talked about the conversion of television signals from analog to digital that has been the center of national attention for awhile now. Doesn't effect my family directly, we are on satellite TV that now offers local channels, but we are watching local commercials again after probably 10 years.  The quality really hasn't changed much over that time. 

The conversation did however take me back to when I was a kid living in rural West Virginia. (Those of you who know me, probably are saying, "You are still a kid living in rural WV.") Anyway, my dad put a tall television antenna at the top of the hill behind our house. My guess is that is was over a quarter mile from the house to the top of the hill, so we had to run two wires back to the house and connect them to the TV to get a signal.

I don't remember the actual creation of the wiring system, but what I do remember was that sometimes, probably due to weather, the antenna would get moved and the signal to the TV would turn poor or even go out.  This meant that the antenna needed to be adjusted to once again get a clear signal. In order  to make such a fine adjustment it required that my two siblings and I be strategically placed at points along the path, so when someone at the top of the hill adjusted the antenna, someone at the TV could tell if it was an improvement or made it worse. The two people located somewhere on the hill in between the two key locations just need to relay the message accurately.  As a dad today, I can only imagine how my Dad must have laughed through such a family activity.

It was quite an event to tune the TV. And what did this gain the Kraus House in terms of high quality entertainment in the later 1970's and early 1980's?  Usually the ability to see the picture on channel 5 and hear the sound on Channel 12.  We thought it was great.

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Joomla Installation For an Beginner

So I have a couple of websites that I am trying to get live on the web. One is a community site the other a prototype of a concept that I have in mind. I have a hosting package on DreamHost and was able to use the "One-Click Installs" to load Joomla.  You have to setup a database and a user account for the database. But really that was it.

If you don't know Joomla is an open source content management system that allows you to create websites without programming. I would much rather learn to program my own site, but "Learn to Program" has been on my todo list for years. So something like this is my alternative.

Once it is installed, they send you an email with some additional instructions. I followed them as close as possible and I have the site up and working.  I did forget what I had set as a username, so it took me a couple of tries to get in, my mistake not theirs.  Now, I really need to learn how to use Joomla.

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A Big Year in 2009: A Physical Challenge

So I am setting myself up for a big year. I am finalizing a transition to a new job and getting myself organized around the goals that I have set out for myself in 2009. On the personal side I am seeking to find balance in my spiritual, mental, social, and physical components of my life. While, I have some specific things in each of the four areas, in this post I want to share my goals for my focus on the physical component. I am looking to improve my health as a key step to improving my overall quality of life, mental clarity, and attitude.

For me it is important to set goals that I can see and obtain. The goal that I am focused on this year is to participate in the 2010 Disney Marathon next January. This will be my second marathon. I completed the first marathon in 2006, also at Disney. I was so excited about just finishing the race, it was incredible. However, being goal oriented, I decided that this year I want to step it up in a big way and will focus on competing the Goofy Challenge. This consists of completing a half marathon on Saturday morning and then a full marathon on Sunday morning of the same weekend. The additional miles will mean that I have to really step up my ability to get in long runs and recover quickly. I have set some key milestones for myself and hope that I can build the necessary strength and endurance necessary to finish.




The focus for me will be on endurance (heart rate), body tone (strength), and monitoring my knees that ofter give me trouble. The technology support that I am using includes the GPS through my iPhone. I have started using an app called RunKeeper. It keeps my location, times, and min/miles data as I run. I am currently using the free edition, but will most likely upgrade when am convinved it is realiable enough to use for the entire training program. One great feature is that it uploads the data to the web immediately following a run and provides me access to it. Any great benefit of running with a GPS-enabled device is the ability to just take off in any direction and log know who far you have run.



I am also looking into purchasing a heart monitor. This is going to be critical for me to build the endurance that I will need for strength and recovery. I haven't really made up my mind, but I know that I want a device with an audible alert to let me know when I am out of my key range.

Finally, something that I haven't structured at all is body toning. I don't know why, you think it would be easy to do push-ups and set-ups each day or lift weights, but I can't seem to get myself into the pattern. I will focus on getting it into my schedule so that I can hold myself accountable.

In the end I hope that it is helpful to others beyond what I know it will do for me. I hope to organize a fund raiser around the event and bring in some money for the WVU Children's Hospital Pediatric Cardiology Department.

I hope to share more throughout the year about my adventures and goals, there will be many highs and lows I am sure. If you are a big time runner you won't be impressed with my ability, but if you are someone who is interested in setting goals, improving your health, and trying to improve all aspects of your life through improved physical conditioning then you might be interested in following along.

Here's to 2009 and setting big goals!

Collaboration at Cisco via John Chambers

Here is an interesting video of John Chambers, fellow WVU grad, discussing command and control versus collaboration style management. It is very clear that Cisco applies a very sophisticated management style to production and operations. They are now focused on leveraging the power of social networking and collaboration to empower company decisions and planning.





Via: Mohamed Amine Chatti