Google Reader

First I was reading the web. Then blogs arrived. Then I found it useful to read blogs via Newsgator inside of Microsoft Project. Now, I've discovered Google Reader, to read blogs. Terrific.

Quiet PC

I got tired of the hurricane noise in my den. I ordered a new "quiet" computer case from Quiet PC (Antec P150). Terrific case. Terrific company to specialise in such environmentally friendly products!

Fantastic Book on Microsoft Project

There are a number of books out there on Microsoft Project. I've run across one (and how I found this I can't remember) which is the book for project managers who use Microsoft Project to read.

"Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft Office project 2003", by Eric Uyttewaal, ISBN 1-932159-45-2.

As Harold Kerzner says in the Foreward, "this book will convince you that project management can be done more efficiently and effectively using scheduling software". This book tells you how to do it with Microsoft Project.

Steve Yegge on how Google Works

Steve writes a very long piece on how he sees Google running, as an insider. He works there as a developer. The piece is not really about Agile Development, despite the title.

His world in Google is so different from others, that we can't help but be challenged to think differently about our own world and how to take some ideas from Google's world.

Adobe Acrobat 8 has built-in Web Conferencing

Now this is interesting.  See http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/ where "Enable users of Adobe Reader® software (version 7.0 or 8) to participate in shared reviews.Use the Start Meeting button to collaborate in real-time with the new Adobe Acrobat Connect line of products." 

It is likely that users of Adobe have not yet experienced web conferencing, and using this "safe" option could be their introduction.

I'm not sure that all products need to have built-in web conferencing, but it's clear that only a very small minority of the world has yet to experience it.

Skidmore Owings and Merrill

While at university studying civil engineering in the 70's, I had visions of someday working at SOM (Skidmore Owings and Merrill).  I didn't want to be an architect and preferred the engineering and business side of big building projects; but the thought of being involved with the creation of such lovely things was a goal. 

I ended up finding that I didn't really "get" structural engineering as much as I "got" fluid mechanics, so my career took a turn towards other directions.

I still wish thought, that when I grow up I can work for or with SOM.

Business Week reminded me of SOM.

Microsoft Live Writer

Microsoft's new tool, Microsoft Life Writer, has received a lot of attention.  All reports are very positive with little to no negatives.  I tried it a few days after release, but for whatever reason it would not connect to my blog on Blogger.  This is another try a few weeks later and it works. I guess there were initial teething problems.

Interestingly, it has one feature I really like: spell checking.  And it has "automatic correction" on spelling, which doesn't seem to workk.

BBC Probably Gets It Wrong Again

Re the strange case of John Mark Karr ...

CNN (and other sites): "no JonBenet charges", e.g. http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/08/28/ramsey.arrest/index.html

BBC: "JonBenet suspect charges dropped" at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5293822.stm.

How can charges which were never (apparently) filed, be dropped?

Cancel Your Credit Card

Cancel Your Credit Card

Love it.

Edinburgh International Book Festival

Edinburgh is a terrific place in August. I can't keep up with all the events going on. Work and real life is definitely getting in the way. The Festival. The Fringe Festival. The Jazz Festival. The Film Festival. The TV Festival. And the Book Festival, my favourite.

Earlier in the week I heard Tim Waterstone talk about his style of management ... he's made many millions for himself and others. Tonight it's Jeremy Leggett and Fred Pearce on "Oil and Water". Robert Fisk of The Independant newspaper couldn't make his committment to appear, so I'll maybe get the opportunity to see Al Gore give his slide show later in the month

Highly recommended: Edinburgh in August.

Update: Al Gore's talk sold out (probably before announcement). Flogging his movie at the Film Festival, Book Festival, and at another event, all on same day.

UKERC - Carbon Capture & Storage: Sustainability in the UK energy mix

I attended this one day meeting which focused, from the UK perspective, on the possibiltiies of geological storage of carbon di-oxide (CO2). It was sponsored by the UKERC Meeting Place, held at the University of Edinburgh, and broughtt together people from industry, finance, legal, and academic worlds.

The consensus of the meething was overwhelming--that being that is possible, practical, and economic to use geological carbon storage to mitigate the risk of relesing CO2 to the atmosphere. CO2 is a greenhouse gas which could lead to global warming.

While storing CO2 surely *can* be done, what's not clear to me is if it *should* be done compared to alternatives. It seems a short term prophylactic solution. I also wonder about the unintended consequences and as yet unknown risks.

The presentation by Dr. Carol Turlye, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, was downright scary. She spoke on the observed effects on CO2 increases in the world's oceans. The oceans' acid content is measurably changes, and it's cause is reliably thought to be increased CO2 in the atmosphere. See the paper published at the above link (along with all the other papers).

Update: Just noticed this article on Scientific American's web site which clearly explains the affect of CO2 on global warming. See Scientific American: If carbon dioxide makes up only a minute portion of the atmosphere, how can global warming be traced to it? And how can such a tiny amount of change produce such large effects?

ASCII Art

Back in the dark ages of computing, when you had to keypunch your program into cards, stand in line at the input desk to hand over your creation to the bored college student who then fed them into the card reader (and you hoped he/she didn't drop your cards), and then you waited ... and waited ... and waited for your output.

In between pouring over the FORTRAN code which computed something technical for some course, a popular past-time for some was creating ASCII art. ASCII art is creative use of the text to create an image, e.g.

O
---
| | |
|
_/ \_


I didn't have the artistic ability to create it, but I did appreciate the achievement.

I've run across a site which presents the entire first episode of Star Wars as a ASCII Art Movie. Impressive creativity. Telnet to towel.blinkenlights.nl and watch.

Rogue Giants at Sea - New York Times

Rogue Giants at Sea - New York Times

I'm amused this now being "discovered". Not only have I personally observed at least "rouge" wave (amongst many very big ones), we also demonstrated the mathematics and probabilities of them in the late 1970's. Only thing is we didn't publish for some silly reason.

The wave in question was while aboard the "Shanghai Trader" in the middle of the South China Sea. I was working in the oil industry at the time and I was a young engineer leading a marine and site survey near an island where there was potential for building a marine terminal. We had to sail to a rig in the a few hundred miles away to pick up some equipment. While underway, we passed through a storm. Very uncomfortable. Every so often a "big" wave would appear. Bigger than the rest. That day cured me. To this day I avoid going on ships into the open sea.

The open ocean is composed of a mixture of waves with different fequencies and amplitudes. They add together to form the pattern of waves that one sees. You can do spectrum analysis of the wave forms to find the different components.

When the spectrum is highly "peaked", e.g. wave energy is focused at a few frequencies with high amplitude, the waves with slightly different frequencies interact to form a very long wave (low frequency) and high amplitude. Actually, it causes a "group" of ways to move this way. We called it "wave grouping". It's this wave caused by the interaction which moves along and appears to a stationary observer (e.g. on a boat) to happen less frequently than the "normal" waves. These waves are bigger than normal, and they move in "packs".

The mathematics of adding waves like this is learned in high school, I think, when one adds together in time two sine waves of slightly different freqency. A more advanced topic would be the Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) of the wave time series to compute their spectrum, and from the spectrum synthesise a time series. Doing this synthesis for lots of waves of different amplitude frequency can simulate the actual sea surface.

I think I'll challenge my son to try to work this all out as an excercise. He's bored this summer and needs a little mental stimulation.

What is ABC News Thinking?

ABC News is asking members of the public to notice and report how their daily lives have been affected by global warming. Heck ... scientists with sophisticated instruments, expeditions, computers, and journals have a hard time agreeing on what they notice.

ABC News wants to hear from you. We're currently producing a report on the increasing changes in our physical environment, and are looking for interesting examples of people coping with the differences in their daily lives. Has your life been directly affected by global warming?

We want to hear your stories. Have you seen changes in your own backyard or hometown? The differences can be large or small — altered blooming schedules, unusual animals that have arrived in your community, higher water levels encroaching on your property.

Please fill out the form below. We hope to hear from you. Thank you.

I'll give ABC News benefit of the doubt and call this "wisdom of the crowds" or something. Will be interesting to see where this goes.

BREITBART.COM - China Builds 51 Dams to Slow Toxic Spill

BREITBART.COM - China Builds 51 Dams to Slow Toxic Spill

Chinese authorities tried to slow the spread of a toxic spill by building 51 makeshift dams along the tainted river and using fire trucks to pump out polluted water before it reaches a reservoir serving a city of 10 million people, state media said Friday.

Poor design by incompetent designers and company executives?