sloppynet

Buy it now anyone ?

2010-06-06T20:40:00.000-04:00

The Ipad has left the building

2010-05-25T20:13:00.000-04:00

Bush Trail in Beckwith (eastern ontario)

2010-05-25T11:17:00.000-04:00

The tulips of spring arrived but sadly so did late season snow

2010-05-09T20:46:00.000-04:00

The public school board has no plan for the future. Discuss.

2010-05-02T00:39:00.000-04:00

The public school board has no plan for the future. Discuss.

What happens when winter comes

2010-05-01T23:46:00.000-04:00

What happens when winter comes

The blog post now has it's own blog and a voting response gadget.

What happens when winter comes ?

2010-04-30T08:18:00.005-04:00

I so like this

2010-04-28T16:22:00.001-04:00

via fastcompany.com

One good reason not to use the Cloud

2010-04-08T09:55:00.002-04:00

I received this email from live.com telling me that they have deleted all my data. Guess their idea is that the cloud is transient.

Microsoft^® My Phone

Dear User,

Thank you for using the Microsoft My Phone service. To help protect your privacy, accounts on the Microsoft My Phone service that are not synchronized or accessed for approximately 7 month(s) are automatically deactivated and any online data is deleted.

Accordingly, we have removed your account.

To establish a new account in the future, please visit http://myphone.microsoft.com .

Thank You

Microsoft My Phone Support Team

Spring came early - warmest day yesterday on record

2010-04-04T21:02:00.000-04:00

Zoo Creatures

2010-03-19T20:41:00.000-04:00

Latest installments to the Zoo Creatures Photo Gallery at

http://neternity.smugmug.com/Nature/Animals/zoo-creatures/

Ice on the river

2010-03-19T16:56:00.000-04:00

nikon d700 - iso 25,600 - outdoor night shots in the dark

2010-03-16T21:24:00.000-04:00

but don't ask to see a larger image
that said, I could not see much of anything with my eye
it was night time about 9pm with no outdoor lights

walking shots were handheld using liveview to help focus
cottage shot was using fence as a brace

all shots using an ancient nikkor 55mm 1.2
manual everything
lens was modded by a local camera shop by grinding off some metal to allow it to work with digital bodies

nikon d700 body
iso 25,600

I needed to register the MAC address of my router at home to let my ipod touches know where they are

2010-03-09T21:27:00.003-05:00

Thank you for submitting a Wireless Access Point to Skyhook Wireless. The following information has been received and will be processed shortly:

MAC Address: 00:18:F8:F3:92:08
Lat/Lon: ..., -...

It can take up to a few weeks before you see your Access Point in some of our production systems. In the mean time you can download Loki to start using Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System on your laptop or desktop. Go to http://loki.com/download to start using Loki today.

Happy Mapping!

The Skyhook Team

TEDx Youth Ottawa 2010

2010-03-04T22:10:00.003-05:00

http://www.tedxyouthottawa.org

TEDxYouthOttawa, North America’s first TEDx conference made entirely for youth, by youth.

TEDxYouthOttawa was North America’s first TEDx conference where all presenters are youth age 25 and younger,
and with a majority of attendees recruited from local high schools and community organizations.
Follow them on Twitter (www.twitter.com/tedxyouthottawa)
Follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/tedxyouthottawa)

What follows are pictures I took of the event with program notes in-line. I tried to capture the essence of the event in pictures as best I could.

Mark Ouseley (age 21)

Mark has passion for environmental science and technology, a keen
sense for trends, developments, and possibilities for the future, and
opportunities for youth as social entrepreneurs.

Mark is in his final year of studies at Queen’s University and has
been active in environmental issues for as long as he can remember.
From working on neighbourhood cleanups, to helping Queen’s become the
first worm-composting residence in Canada, he has overseen a variety
of sustainability initiatives, both large and small. Through his
travels, he has observed sustainable lifestyles abroad in Japan,
England and, most recently, China.

Ronan MacParland (age 22)

The Canada we’re looking for is not to be found, but rather built by
the hands of people willing to come together to break the cycles of
poverty and pain that have kept us from our incredible potential.

What does it mean to be Canadian? Ronan MacParland will tackle this
question in his presentation, titled ‘Identity Crisis’. Originally
from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Ronan is a co-founder of the Canadian
Roots exchange program – a week long road trip that takes First
Nations, Inuit, Metis and non-Indigenous Canadians around Canada’s
provinces to visit and learn from our country’s Indigenous
communities. A recipient of Youth in Motion’s ‘Top 20 Under 20′ in
2007, Ronan is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in
International Relations from the University of Toronto.

David Charette (age 18)

Song, dance and language unify – For our children’s sake we must
continue to dance, for each movement is a silken strand in the larger
web of the all: the pattern of the Whole.

David Charette is a grade 12 student at Lester B. Pearson Catholic
High School in Ottawa. He has been dancing since he was a young child,
performing at Powwows from New Brunswick to Alberta. David’s interests
outside of dancing include motion photography and culinary arts.
David’s first dance will be a Straight-Up grass dance, which
originated amongst Prairie tribes, and was traditionally used to
flatten down the grass for feasts, powwow or a place to set up camp.
The second dance is a Crow Hop, which mimics the movement of a crow on
the ground. This dance may be performed in exhibition or competition,
and celebrates the role of the crow in Native culture and religion.

The Children’s Republic

An excerpt from a play by Hannah Moscovitch, performed by cast members
from the sold-out 2009 production, presented by the Great Canadian
Theater Company and the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama.

Dr. Janusz Korczak is the King of Children. Doctor, author and
champion of children’s rights, Janusz runs a remarkable orphanage in
Poland. But when the Nazis invade, the Jewish orphans are forced into
the Warsaw Ghetto. Janusz follows to protect their rights and dignity.
In a world devoid of freedom and even the necessities of life, what
else do you have but your honour and ideals? A powerful and true tale
of beauty, heroism and legacy.

Dandelion Dance (ages 19 and under)

Grounded in the belief that youth have important ideas to share and
that dance is a powerful medium with which to share these ideas.

Dandelion Dance Company is an Ottawa based youth dance theatre company
which explores social issues through movement. The company’s
repertoire is driven by the experiences, reflections and passions of
the young women, who range in age from ages 13 to 19, and include such
topics as child labour, hunger, war, equality and inclusion. All the
performance pieces are chosen, researched and choreographed by the
members of the company, under the mentorship of Hannah Beach.

Philip Schleihauf (age 19)

Six hours on the road every day leaves a lot of time to think.
Unicycling for a cause for three months provides lots to think about.

While balancing an engineering education, a band, being director of
the Queens University branch of Engineers Without Borders, and
photography for a feature-length film, Phil’s favorite thing is
planning big unicycle tours. He got his first unicycle when he moved
to Ottawa eight years ago, and got practice by riding it to his high
school, Lester B Pearson, every day. In April ‘09 Phil set out from
Victoria BC on his single wheel to become the second person to ride
the 4700km – in unicycle terms 1.7 million wheel revolutions – to
Ottawa. The goal: raise awareness of the child soldiering by the LRA
in Northern Uganda.

Brigette DePape (age 20)

Performing from her self-penned, critically acclaimed play, ‘She Rules
with Iron Stix,’ Brigette DePape asks whether art is an escape from
real world problems or part of their solution.

A playwright since the age of 15, and a third year international
development student who has contributed to sustainable development
projects in Senegal and Bosnia, DePape explores the possibility of new
worlds: changing our actual world through activism vs. creating new
worlds through fiction. She attempts to reconcile responsibility and
creativity, suggesting that plays can be a powerful tool for cultural
change.

Shawn MacDonell (age 25)

He has travelled across the world, started (and runs) 3 companies,
sits on over a dozen active social enterprise boards and committees,
coached four different sports at all levels from local to national,
raced cars all over the country, and sometimes attends university.

Shawn currently runs Creativision – an organization with the
philosophy that every person has a passion or two that they might not
be aware of. Sometimes people either don’t know their passions or they
just don’t do anything with those passions. They become hobbies,
things that people look forward to engaging with when they are
retired. This, according to Shawn, is definitely not cool!

Shawn spends most of his day in the world of educational alternatives,
youth leadership, entrepreneurial culture building, and active living
encouragement.

Rylan Allemang-Grand (age 22)

Rylan’s discussion, “Our Plastic Brain”, is a glimpse into the inner
workings of our brain to demonstrate how the fundamental units of the
nervous system adapt in the face of learning and experience.

With the use of modern functional imaging techniques, we are able to
watch the brain rearrange its circuitry in order to adapt to the
dynamic environment that we live in. Rylan will reveal evidence of how
everyone has the potential to change their brain and how important
this is during adolescence, and recovery from brain injury. We have
known for some time that the brain is the most sophisticated organ in
our body. However, the fact that it is constantly changing and
reorganizing itself makes it the most complex entity in our universe.
Prepare to become a believer!

---------------------------------

Marcus Jameel (age 22)

The 2008 Capital Slam champion has shared the stage with the likes of
Amir Sulaiman, Black Ice, Shane Koyczan and Dwayne Morgan. His
conscious, articulate delivery style has been winning slams – and
winning over audiences – throughout the National Capital Region.

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Marcus Jameel anchored the Ottawa
Slam Team at the 2008 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, where they
broke the national team scoring record. Since 2009, Marcus Jameel has
held another unique position (on top of being a full-time accounting
student), tailored especially for him, as Director of English and
Poetry in prison systems assisting inmates with lyrics and performing
arts. He further explores his entrepreneurial side as an agent – the
Canadian representative of Black Ice, a star of Def Poetry well
established in the North American spoken word scene. Marcus Jameel
will use his verbal talents and critical mind to explore social
psychology and the mentality of public speaking itself.

-------------------------------------

Dave Hale (age 21)

Embracing your youth – how can your age help you make it big?

When national brands look to target the youth market, they turn to
serial entrepreneur, Dave Hale. An Ottawa native, Dave co-founded O2
Entertainment when he was 18 and built the company into North
America’s largest mobile paintball attraction in under two years…while
still working over 60 hours a week as the marketing coordinator at
local entertainment institution, Saunders Farm. Building off this
success, Dave pursued his true passion and co-founded Re:Cognition
Branding, an Ottawa based creative agency which has worked with
recognized local and national organizations.

Dave also serves as the Director of Marketing for Impact
Entrepreneurship Group, Canada’s largest youth-run entrepreneurship
organization. Since 2004, Impact has been providing the necessary
tools, programs, and opportunities to facilitate the entrepreneurial
development of young Canadians and has assisted in producing some of
the country’s top young minds.

Samira Ahmed & Zach Hayes (ages 22 & 20)

What is learning? Moving into 2010, we see an increasing need for
traditional methods of learning to be supplemented by new
collaborative student-driven forms of education; to see education as a
more open, two-way process between those with knowledge, and those
learning.

FYBY News is a new open movement that enables students to explore
issues they care about, ask questions they may not otherwise ask, and
share their findings with the world through video and other multimedia
applications – students, finally, get to own their education.

Aliai Lual (age 23)

Aliai A.A. Lual emigrated to Canada from war-torn Sudan with her
family on June 10th, 1990. Driven by the passion her parents had in
providing opportunities for their community, Aliai was inspired to
take on a role as an international voice for Sudanese youth displaced
around the world and in refugee camps.

Aliai is a Youth Engagement Officer for 3 Dreads and a Baldhead,
powerfully contributing to the black community and the Black Youth
Conference Day, an annual event that brings together black youth from
different schools and backgrounds in the Ottawa area with the aim of
creating a vision for themselves and their community. Among her
achievements, Aliai was named the 2008 United Way Community Builder of
the Year and one of the Top 50 people who are shaping the future of
the Nation’s Capital (Ottawa Life Magazine).

Theatre Ashbury (age 18 and below)

Theatre Ashbury is not always for the squeamish or faint at heart but
it is always meticulously produced to appreciative audiences and
frequent ovations.

Theatre Ashbury’s philosophy is to produce plays of social
significance. Their multi award winning productions offer the cast and
crew opportunities for meaningful discussion and debate – and the
opportunity for audiences to experience often provocative theatre at
its finest. Students will perform a segment from their recent
production of “The Glory of Living”, written by Rebecca Gilman. The
play has been the recipient of many awards and was a finalist for the
Pulitizer Prize in 2002. Audience members should be prepared to be
shocked, moved and perhaps even somewhat disturbed by the content,
while being amazed by the skill and talent of the actors.

Stunt Double Circus

Stunt Double Circus is a brand new collaboration between “Phantastyk”
acrobats Joey Albert and Paul Perreault (www.phantastyk.ca) and “The
Pogo Dudes” Fred Gryzbowski and Nick McClintock
(www.thepogodudes.com).

Ever since the uprising of special effects in mainstream action
movies, professional stunt doubles all over the world are left without
any work. Ever wonder what these brave jobless thrill seekers do to
pass their time? Well now you can wonder no longer!

Stunt Double Circus is an extremely high energy acrobatic show filled
with character-based humor! Watch as these absurdly stereotypical
out-of-work stuntmen perform big time stunts in a number of rare
circus art forms!

http://www.tedxyouthottawa.org

TEDxYouthOttawa, North America’s first TEDx conference made entirely for youth, by youth.

Neil Young closing out the Games

2010-02-28T23:04:00.000-05:00

Weather Conditions from The Weather Channel

2010-02-27T00:45:00.001-05:00

This message was sent from a friend.

Weather for Ottawa, Canada

Hourly Forecast: 2/27

1 AM
Snow Shower. 33F. NNE 9 mph. Precip 40%%
2 AM
Snow Shower. 33F. NNE 9 mph. Precip 50%%
3 AM
Snow Shower. 32F. NNE 9 mph. Precip 60%%
4 AM
Snow Shower. 32F. NNE 9 mph. Precip 70%%
5 AM
Snow Shower. 32F. NNE 9 mph. Precip 70%%
6 AM
Snow Shower. 32F. NE 9 mph. Precip 70%%
7 AM
Snow Shower. 32F. NE 9 mph. Precip 60%%
8 AM
Snow Shower. 31F. NE 9 mph. Precip 60%%
9 AM
Snow Shower. 30F. NE 10 mph. Precip 60%%
10 AM
Snow Shower. 30F. NE 10 mph. Precip 60%%
11 AM
Snow Shower. 31F. NE 10 mph. Precip 50%%
12 PM
Few Snow Showers. 32F. NE 10 mph. Precip 30%%

Last Updated: 2/26/10 11:47 PM Local Time
For more weather information, visit www.weather.com from your PC or
mobile device.

Sent from my iPod

Posted via email from neternity's posterous

Xmas toys from 1969 and

2010-02-25T16:02:00.002-05:00

http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives_new/2008/en/wmv/holiday_treats_19691203.wmv

and

http://ms.radio-canada.ca/archives_new/2003/en/wma/computers19621204er1.wma

an audio clip on computers selecting gifts in 1962

and this was not a goal either

2010-02-24T16:49:00.000-05:00

It was the right call - No Goal

2010-02-24T16:37:00.000-05:00

BrainStorming

2010-02-03T22:11:00.001-05:00

Four Perfect Situations for Brainstorming
from Blogging Innovation by Blogging Innovation
by Paul Williams
While there are innumerable reasons for hosting a brainstorming session, the purpose for meeting can be summarized with four situations. They are the need to meet to:
Fix Something Broken / Problem Solving
Grow Something
Get Ideas / Fill Idea Pipeline
Innovate / Make Something New

(1) Fix Something Broken / Problem Solving
This is what is traditionally thought of as Creative Problem Solving (CPS). You've identified that you have some sort of problem (or 'opportunity' as some prefer to call it), and need to brainstorm some solutions. Perhaps you need to drive sales by x% in Q1? Determine ways to raise money to put a new roof on the church? Find ways to stand apart from your competition? You'd identified something that needs to be addressed (the problem) and need solutions.
Think About: Are you sure you're solving the right problem, and not simply addressing the symptoms? What are the assumptions? Constraints?

(2) Grow Something
Your franchise has reached a certain size and you want to grow bigger. Your new company has a steady flow of clients - now you want a "brand" - a logo, website, long-term goals, etc. You've got something already established and want to make it bigger.
Think About: Where are you now? Where do you want to go? Is this an ultimate goal, or a next step? Are you ready to manage the responsibility associated with the growth? What do you feel you "must keep", or can growing mean starting over from scratch?

(3) Get Ideas / Fill Idea Pipeline
You're tapped for ideas. You need to come up with a series of new product flavors for the next year. You want to determine your FY'10-11 promotional calendar. Your idea bank is near zero and you need to replenish the account.
Think About: How refined do you need the new ideas to be: sketch ideas or near-final proven concepts?

(4) Innovate / Make Something New
Combine ideas in a way that hasn't been done before. You want to do something innovative in your business category. Something above and beyond (a) your competition and/or (b) what you have done in the past.
Think About: Do these ideas need to be truly "new" or just new to your category? (You may find a practice in another industry can become your best practice.

Conclusion
As I've looked across the clients I have served, and meetings I've attended with employers; the reasons for brainstorming always boil down to these basic four situations. Even if - at times - the reason may be a combination of one or more of these... these are still the root situations.
Understanding these four situations will help you define clear objectives and the desired outcome of the meeting.

via google.ca

Posted via web from neternity's posterous

Google Reader (1000+) - 2009 Cloudies Awards

2010-02-03T21:38:00.001-05:00

The 2009 Cloudies Awards
from IT Management and Cloud Blog by John
This is the second year of the “Cloudies” award and still only one judge (me). However, there are things in the works to make the “Cloudies” a more official and non-tongue-n-cheek next year. I did solicit some tweets this year for awards. Please don’t be offended if you are not in this list. This list represents my radar and is somewhat of a goof. I am a one man show and not a global organization. If you don’t agree with me please post a comment and if you have a good argument I will create an updated post. Here goes:

Cloud Hero of 2009

Beaker Chris Hoff

I predicted this early in 2008 (see And the 2009 Cloudie Award Goes To…)

Most Influential Cloud Bloggers

randybias Randy Bias of Cloudscaling

Randy has done some fantastic blog posts this year on cloud computing. There are few people out there that can match his total understanding of infrastructure computing.

ruv Reuven Cohen of Enomaly

Love him or or not, his blog always has in depth coverage coverage of the latest announcements on cloud computing. It is one the first places I go to figure out the impact of something new in cloud computing.

Top IaaS

Amazon

Sorry folks, no one even comes close to these guys on the IaaS.

Rackspace

Despite a few missteps here and there, these guys are the only folks on Amazon’s radar.

Top PaaS

Rightscale

Still the one-and-only on-ramp to the cloud (IaaS)…

Heroku

I am sure there are a lot of other great PaaS’s out there; however the “Cloudies” is not a democracy. Every customer of these guys raves about their service.

Top SaaS

SalesForce.Com

Blah, Blah, Blah

Google Apps

I guess you could call them the Amazon.com of SaaS.

Best Private Cloud Vendors

Eucalyptus

Running in Nasa, Eli Lilly and a few other places puts them in the lead at this point.

Canonical

A close second to Eucalyptus. Backed by Canonical with Ubuntu server and KVM it makes for a great story…

Best Cloud Application Providers

RabbitMQ

They got clowns the the left and jokers to the right. RabbitMQ stuck in the middle with you.

Appistry

They have a great story down at FedEx and Bob and Sam are some of the nicest guys you will ever meet.

Best Cloud Orchestration Tools in the Cloud

Chef

Zenoss is to Nagios as Chef is to Puppet. Oh yea I am an adviser for Opscode.

Puppet

What can I say, Puppet is the Nagios of open source configuration management.

Best Monitoring Tools in the Clouds

Zenoss

Zenoss is the Zenoss of open source monitoring. They added some great cloud (Amazon) monitoring features this year.

collectD

The dirty little secret of cloud monitoring. Rightscale uses CollectD for monitoring.

Best Security Solutions for the Cloud

VPN Cubed

First is usually best. Plus you gotta luv the CohesiveFT dudes…

AWS VPC

Best of the rest.

Best Cloud Builders

CohesiveFT

Elastic Server gets it done in 09.

rPath

Best Cloud New Comers

WebappVM

Very cool new PaaS.

Cloudant

CoudchDB as a Service.. Ya gotta luv it.

Best Open Source in the Clouds

Opennebula

This project is where Eucalyptus was about 1 year ago.

Best Languages used in the clouds

Ruby

Java

Biggest Cloud Disappointment in 2009

Snoracle

Congrats… Two years running.

Best Killer Apps in the Cloud

Soasta

350k eFile’s in 22 hours all on AWS… Tough to beat these guys.

Cloudswitch

Zero touch movement of enterprise legacy application to Amazon EC2. Sounds like a winner to me.

Best Cloud Startup Success Stories

Flightcaster

These guys are paving the road for the avg folk like me to do “Big” things with data.

Best New Cloudy Terms

Nosql

“Not Only SQL?”

Meatcloud Manifesto

Give me an API or give me death.

Worst Cloud CTO

Russ Daniels CTO at HP

Best Cloud CTO

Adam Jacob

I am biased; however, I think Chef from Opscode is the most exciting thing to happen to “enterprise systems management” in many years. Adam and Jesse have assembled a freaking great team.

Best Cloud Analysts

monkchips

cote

Best Cloud Innovation in 2009

Chris K Wensel – Cascading

Best David vs. Goliath Cloud Vendor

OpenQRM

Best Cloud Tweet

Meatcloud Manifesto

Best Cloud Arguments

Cisco v HP

samj v Everyone

New Awards in 2009

Best Cloud Presentations

Simon Wardley – Cloud Computing Why it Matters

Chris Hoff - The Frogs Who Desired a King: A Virtualization & Cloud Computing Fable

Rookie of the Year

lmacvittie Lori MacVittie

cloudbzz JohnTreadway

Best Cloud Argument (Redemption)

GeorgeReese

George was right.. Austoscaling doesn’t matter.

Best Cloud Philosopher

joeweinman

Best Cloud Evangelists

jeffbarr

davenielsen

Best Agile Infrastructure Dudes

patrickdebois

cread

Honorable Mention

jamesurquhart

gevaperry

vambenepe

KrisBuytaert

zoopster

via google.ca

Posted via web from neternity's posterous

Google Reader (1000+)http://www.lightstalking.com/habits

2010-02-03T21:27:00.001-05:00

Why Some People Almost Always Take Awesome Photographs
from Light Stalking by admin
2 people liked this
If you have ever spent serious time working or learning from a well-known professional photographer, then you will come to realise that some of them barely ever take a bad photo. While it can be a little disheartening to see the shots from an afternoon and know that their worst shot is better than your best, it also means there is a technique to the craft that can be emulated. In my experience, the people who take constantly excellent photos have a few characteristics and follow a few rules that set them apart from many other photographers. Here is what I have witnessed.

Photo by Christolakis

They Know Their Camera – Most folks I have seen whose skill I want to copy know their camera like the back of their hand. Without taking their eye from the view finder they can switch back and forth from auto-exposure bracketing, white balance adjustments, ISO, aperture and whatever else their weapon of choice can do. Usually this is a result of them having used the same gear for years and practiced so much that adjustments on their camera become a reflex. A great piece of advice for amateur photographers with a new DSLR is to sit down and read the instruction manual from cover to cover!

Photo by Hamachi

They Pre Plan – On the way to a shoot, these photographers are already thinking about (and probably chatting to their assistants about) the conditions they expect to be shooting under. That means they take the right selection of gear and know exactly what to do when they get there. If they are not sure about the shooting conditions, they will often plan according to a variety and take appropriate gear. I spent many train trips in Japan (as a photographer’s assistant) simply listening to my boss tell me about what the shooting conditions would likely be and how we should react to them.

They Know the Theory – A big part of what allows these people to pre plan their shoots is knowing what type of shooting situations require which type of reaction. Knowing that indoor fluorescent lighting will give a green tinge to most photos means you can adjust white balance setting on a camera accordingly. Knowing that photos of lightning are best taken at 100ISO with a tripod gives you an advantage when that situation rolls around. Knowing how to react to challenging shooting conditions allows such folks to pre-plan their shoots. The easiest way to get to know the theory behind photography is to read everything you can get your hands on about the subject.

Photo by Kuzeytac

They Get Close – Good photographers (usually) fill the frame with the subject. There is a reason that the first three rules of photography are “Get closer. Get closer. Get closer.” This might be generalising a little (landscape photography for example doesn’t require strict adherence), but when shooting a subject or person, these photographers get up close and personal. There is a reason that paparazzi get so close and jostle each other – good people shots require as much proximity as possible.

Photo by Sukanto Debnath

They Know Post Production – Whether they shoot on film or digital, these folks know how to get the most out of the post production process. That might mean burning and dodging in a darkroom or masking and correcting levels in Photoshop, but these guys have a solid understanding of what makes a great picture and they usually have an efficient work flow to back that up.

A lot of this comes down to a combination of two factors. Education and practice. Now education is what you make it – from reading websites like this one to buying and reading photography books and guides all the way through to going to photography colleges. Practice is pretty straight forward. How close you get to being able to emulate those folks who can take a great picture every time really depends on how much time you are willing to put into these two things.

via google.ca

Posted via web from neternity's posterous

Now this is neat

2010-02-03T20:36:00.000-05:00

Energy-gathering soccer ball turns kicks into light
from DVICE by Adam Frucci
1 person liked this
Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world partly because it requires so little: a ball and some space to play is all you really need. And because of that, it's extremely popular in third world countries. Now, the Soccket has arrived to make soccer a helpful addition to the places its played.

The Soccket uses an inductive coil mchanism inside to save up all that kinetic energy used kicking it around. It can then plug in and charge an LED light using that energy. About 15 minutes of play can provide 3 hours of charge, which seems pretty reasonable to me. A great idea, and one that will definitely help people in need.

via google.ca

Posted via web from neternity's posterous

The red phone box that has become Britain's smallest library | Mail Online

2010-02-03T15:11:00.001-05:00

The red phone box that has become Britain's smallest library

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:01 PM on 01st December 2009

Comments (23)

Add to My Stories

Cunning villagers have found a novel way to cope with the shortage of libraries in their area by turning an old red phone box into a book exchange.
The former BT phone kiosk has been transformed from a telephone exchange to Britain's smallest library by cunning residents and now stocks around 100 titles.
Villagers rallied together to set up the book box after their mobile library service was cancelled.

Book box: Villagers in the Somerset village of Westbury-sub-Mendip wait in line to use the country's smallest library which was converted from an old red phone box

Happy reading: The phone box now houses titles from cooking books to the classics and blockbusters to children's books

The parish council purchased the box, a Giles Gilbert Scott K6 design, for £1, and residents in the Somerset village of Westbury-sub-Mendip put up wooden shelves inside and donated their own books.
The phone box now houses titles from cooking books to the classics and blockbusters to children's books.

More...

Libraries to lend books by post to stop service 'sleepwalking into the iPhone era'

Council chiefs who mistakenly banned 6-inch garden gnomes over 'elf and safety' say sorry

‘It has really taken off,’ Parish councillor Bob Dolby told The Guardian.
‘Turnover is rapid and there's a good range of books, everything from reference books to biographies and blockbusters.’

Reinvented: The box was bought for £1 and residents put up wooden shelves inside and donated their own books while a located business supplied the signs

Meanwhile resident Angela Buchanan was also full of praise for the book box.
'It's such a brilliant idea,' she said. 'Our nearest library is Wells, four miles away, so if you don't want to go into the town but have run out of something to read, it's great you can use this.
'All sorts of interesting books turn up – manuals, picture books, good literary novels.’
The phone box library is open every day for 24 hours and is lit at night. There is a regular check on it to see if some titles are not moving. These are then shipped on to a charity shop to keep the phone box collection fresh.
BT has received 770 applications for communities to 'adopt a kiosk' and so far 350 old boxes have been handed to parish councils.

via dailymail.co.uk

Posted via web from neternity's posterous

Winter Wonderland

2010-01-31T22:41:00.001-05:00

special sayings for special times

2010-01-14T21:03:00.000-05:00

When you are trying to ride a dead horse, you need to get a new one

2010-01-14T19:19:00.001-05:00

tvo.org

2009-12-02T19:57:00.001-05:00

Beware of the Cloud - the last mile is fragile

2009-11-24T23:08:00.003-05:00

Here I sit in the dark. Hydro Ontario says 1,700 of us are effected. It's my first brownout. 59 volts at the outlet.

Other than a few brownish lights, I shut off the breakers for the furnace, water pump, fridge, freezer, tv, satellite.

I tried phoning hydro but the cordless phones are dead. Used the cell, Had major static, had to talk to a person. The automated machine does voice and dtmf. it could not take my phone number.

Internet is down. House is up on a hill, from my upstairs, multi-windowed office I can see nothing. Dark. Nothing. Radio is on. CBC Stereo 1, stuart mclean vinyl café coming from picton ontario. Radio is a good one, goes 23 hours on a charge.

Battery backup for server and network has shutdown. Laptops haave been shutdown to save battery for the morning should we be down still.

Last time was the ice storm. We had no power for 11 days. Between then and now was the eastern north america grid shutdown one summer.

We have a wood stove. I need to buy a bigger generator or get the industrial one I got from salvage working.

I am posting this using a Windows Mobile Plam Treo Pro and a Celio RedFly. Using IE and blogger directly and it works okay. I like the autosave. Using EVDO and it's okay. I am connected.

I have a cool radio show playing to keep me company. Facebook works. Slow but works. Email is totally alive and well. Push email to the Treo from the corporate exchange server, personal email from google gmail.

How would you survive for the next 11 days with no hydro ? No internet unless it's provided by a provider with generators.

Do you work from home ? Can you work still ?

Back to basic's. Food, heat, water. What's your plan for survival.

I'm thinking through my plan as I sit up high in my lookout wondering if I'll see the lights come back on in my little part of the world.

The cloud will be there when I get back to it.

$30 shirt + $20 shipping = close window

2009-10-28T10:30:00.000-04:00

Itouch - 20 bucks - handheld, wireless camera control - and it works

2009-10-27T22:51:00.000-04:00

Long Live the CloudFrame

2009-10-20T10:15:00.002-04:00

I was asked:

In what sense is a Private Cloud a Cloud? I can understand that it can be cloud-like in the sense that virtualization is employed more consistently and I can see that IT might be able to deliver some degree of elasticity and associated charging models. But at the end of the day all the kit still belongs to the enterprise, so you haven't really moved from a CapEx to OpEx model.

Also what I understand as one of the drivers for cloud (and traditional outsourcing too) is that a bank (hospital, government, retailer , whatever) is not in the business of running data centres. Building an internal "cloud" only makes them more tied to their data centre.

Doesn't it?

I answered:

And who was it that said that a cloud must be OpEx ?

and who said that only an "external" like a google or amazon or MS can provide the floor,heat and power for the cloud hardware ?

I would contend that the two assertions above are blatantly false.

And are made by those with something to gain.

The mainframe was the original cloud. Some organizations just want their lost operating system back. It used to be one computing infrastructure , one operating system. Now we have many pieces of infrastructure each with piece of operating systems. Cloud has one operating system. That's all that is wanted, simplicity and service.

Long live the cloudframe.

There must be an analogy here

2009-10-13T01:04:00.000-04:00

There must be a clever analogy here.

The chassis that lives forever ...
The best never dies but ceases to serve a purpose ...
Not all metal rusts ...
After all of the cuts, only a shell remains ...

These are the one's the nice lady said I could take

2009-10-12T11:46:00.014-04:00

I was told that I could not bring my SLR to the game.

I was told that my point and shoot was okay.

So the Nikon went into the lock box in the jeep and along came the baby canon.

and the video http://neternity.smugmug.com/photos/677941501_ZVDvr-M.jpg

The nice lady said your camera is too good - please leave it outside or check it

2009-10-10T18:40:00.001-04:00

The nice lady said your camera is too good - please leave it outside or check it
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

I guess the NHL has too many people taking pictures and beng fans.

Point and shoots are fine.

Just leave your SLR behind.

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

The GoogleWave is Krazy

2009-10-01T22:50:00.000-04:00

This guy Kol knows how to get comments.

From 3,000 subscribers he has manufactured 270,000 comments.

This time he asked those of us that Google has deemed upworthy of an invite to try out GoogleWave if we'd like an invite.

So far, 450 said yes.

The Achilles Heel of SmugMug

2009-10-01T22:16:00.002-04:00

Me to SmugMug:

I can't get HD video files over 200mb uploaded to my SmugMug Professional site. I get timeouts. I have tried all the available uploaders and the third-party ones too. Uploads over 200mb fail.

SmugMug to Me:

That's a problem with your Internet Service. Ours is working fine. Sorry.

Me to SmugMug:

You need to solve the problem. Not everyone has a rock solid Internet Service or Internet Service Provider. To make HD video work on the net, or any large file based product, a technology solution is required. Other companies have recognized this and offered a technology solution.

SmugMug to Me:

Sorry we can't help. Try smaller files or a better internet service.

After the dialogue, I thought the SmugMug needs to buy DropBox ( getdropbox.com ) because they get it.

ps. SmugMug, I have over 30gb uploaded to your servers. I think my internet service is pretty much okay. It's just that 500mb HD video files are a different game than 8mb image files. You will fail in the HD video game if you don't recognize the differences between it and the image game. It's too bad you don't get it because I am cheering for you.

Audio and Video supplementing and enhancing education

2009-09-29T11:38:00.001-04:00

This is more than a trend.

I see audio and video enhancing the education system.

Imagine being able to go back years later into your education library and review a lecture.

I think there are issues but the long term benefits make the journey to get there worthwhile.

my 2 cents.

in reference to: MediaShift . Is University of Missouri's iPod Touch 'Requirement' Fair? | PBS (view on Google Sidewiki)

Tying the debt owed to employees to Nortel's patent pool makes sense

2009-09-27T00:30:00.001-04:00

Too bad it can't be done in the case of Nortel but maybe the concept of a lien being able to be placed on patents is a concept of today's world that needs to be put in place.

in reference to: Virtual Nonsense » Lien on Nortel Patents (view on Google Sidewiki)

bring the new generation to the music of the older generation on their terms

2009-09-24T13:53:00.001-04:00

It's a good thing

in reference to: PC World Canada Slideshows - The Beatles: Rock Band--Stylish, Nostalgic, and a Blast to Play - Index (view on Google Sidewiki)

I am getting a new toy in a most unique way

2009-09-22T22:45:00.000-04:00

A buddy of mine dropped by asking if he could buy my old turntable for a local radio station.

It is one of these. I have a limited connection to it. I lusted after one while in high school for my DJ business. I never got one, they were too much $$ back then. I did snag one at a yard sale about 5 or more years ago.

I paid $5.00 for it.

I've used it, maybe four times. It works well but other than for nostalgia, i need it not.

I also have a quite good dual that was my brothers.

So, $300.00 was the offer and $300.00 is what i accepted.

Besides bragging rights for one of the best yard sale electronics finds, I can now bring home anything without getting the 'look'.

So i sell this,

and buy this:

Jeep is back - I got the new registration 3 weeks ago

2009-09-20T22:42:00.000-04:00

When old school becomes new school

2009-09-18T11:14:00.001-04:00

I managed to shoe horn windows 7 onto a Compaq TC1000 tablet pc circa 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_TC1000

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=hp+tc1000&rls=com.microsoft:en-ca:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7DBCA&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=1496245053404795104&ei=BaKzSsixMpHplAe5gszzDg&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=4#ps-sellers

It runs, very slowly by modern hardware standards but not bad compared to how it rans when new with XP Tablet edition.

There is one hardware problem that is a show stopper. The digitizer for the tablet doesn't work. HP drivers for XP don't work. I found a Gateway driver than installs and while windows is happy, they digitizer/pen is useless.

So I fresh installed with back to XP Tablet 2005. It is my retro computer now. I call it my G-Touch. It runs ie well and supports my igoogle page nciely. Email, calendar, rss, piscasa.

and it has a feature not found today.

a built-in compact flash card reader

retro supports my D-SLR

all the new stuff requires me to carry a usb cable or reader & cable

when i go to starbucks, all the cool kids with have either netbooks or widescreen lugabouts

but i know i will be on to something with this retro computing when my teenager asks me if she can take it to school

btw, it scored a 1.0 rating but in fact it was so slow that windows could not rate it.

To Tweet the incredible tweet

2009-09-18T09:42:00.000-04:00

Like i get twitter but i don't get it.

I miss the part where a guy
with nothing to say and
with nothing said
gets over 15,000 people
to follow
what he doesn't say
and hasn't said.

Maybe, they know
that one day
sometime soon
he will
tweet the incredible tweet.

I want to be a rockstar

2009-09-10T23:29:00.000-04:00

Nickelback nails it. We all just wanna be big rockstars.

I decided tonight to browse through the world of http://www.luxist.com
and dream a little dream for me.

I'll share what catches my eye.

Take a gander over at http://facebook.com/neternity with the rest
of my facebooky stuff.

Or just gander at my shared items page at http://www.google.com/reader/shared/neternity.

Off to dream .....

Windows 7 trip report

2009-08-30T21:24:00.002-04:00

Well, I do think it is faster than Vista.

Best knews is that Windows XP runs well under Microsoft Virtual PC x64. I can read my work email via our Juniper VPN and Office 2003. A bit of old school mixed with this bleeding edge stuff.

Stuff like picasa, friendfeed, twitter, facebook, gmail, gall (mail, docs, calendar, rss reader, voice).

And i have decided i like the task bar.

i can't see a difference, can you see a difference

2009-08-29T10:32:00.002-04:00

I was getting a bunches of blue screen's of death on my personal HP TC2114ca which is a neat little table pc, amd64 with a nvidia graphics. I got it cheap after HP refreshed the model with amd64 and ati graphics ( a logical step once amd bought ati).

It came with 4gb ram and 64bit vista.

So i decided to fix it by putting windows 7 on it.

Did the painless install/upgrade and it just worked. My touch screen works but my fingerprint reader and fancy hp keys don't. HP says wait for october 22nd.

But it works.

It seems faster but the vista version wasn't slow.

I really can't see much of a difference other than changes to where stuff is in menu's and control panel.

It does seem to fix the big problem with vista - perception.

Now granted this is a big hardware system so i can't comment on performance of windows 7 vs vista on wee netbooks or older less performant hardware but then why bother upgrading any of them. Just use the OS them came with. Networks are now under $300 so spending over $100 for a windows 7 upgrade seems a waste of money.

Just buy a new OS when you by a new system. Spend your money on a new mouse or some cool software or a higher speed internet connection or an big external hard drive. The last two will get you more than an OS upgrade will.

Nothing like a good old fashioned fire cooked meal

2009-08-25T16:59:00.001-04:00

Nothing like a good old fashioned fire cooked meal
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

On Scatter Architecture, an Enterprise Architecture Approach beyond SOA and Cloud

2009-07-24T23:41:00.003-04:00

I see a light at the end of the tunnel.

It's a bright one and could well stay lit for long enough that we'll make it to it and bask in it's brilliance.

This light I call Scatter Architecture.

Let me explain; a Scatter Architecture makes use of multiple sources of processing, storage and functionality based on what makes the most sense for the business need at hand.

The traditional solid Enterprise Architecture is now loosly coupled using both a Services and Modular approach to applications. Processing and storage is freed from the confines of the traditional data center. Cloud computing is embraced with internal, external and public clouds.

Everything we do well now as SOA and all that is legacy is embraced and leveraged.

The Scatter Architecture is one where many choices are made, some in design and some via real-time goverance and directional controls. It follows much of the same constructs of consumer shopping.

In comsumer shopping, choices are made based on value, availability, trust, relationships and other such influences and 'rules'. There are a few wrong choices but the smart consumer ends up with the better result by shopping around. The clothing retailer may not have the right hat. The camping goods retailer might.

Service providers need to compete and since the consumer makes the ultimate decision and has the ability to shop where they want, the consumer has the final say.

Such in a Scatter Architecture, architecture principles of flexibility, choice, multi-sourcing and openness drive decisions and the outcome.

Enabling this is the ability of a business's supporting functions and applications to be scattered and an architecture that supports integrated scattering. Cloud computing is breaking up the enterprise architecture to support scattering of processing, storage and functionality. SOA and modular applications are scatterable.

As both mature, so will the ability to Scatter. Scatter Architecture should be the end goal, it way outwieghs cost savings and low level ROI. The larger ROI will come at the enterprise level when the control of consumption of functions and the supporting infrastucture are placed in the hands of the consumer.

There, in a too short and slightly convulted way, I've explained and staked my claim to the concept of the Scatter Architecture.

For once and for a neternity. It's on my blog.

I sort of got lost

2009-07-24T23:32:00.002-04:00

I have found myself content to leave dribs of my stream of conciousness all over the Internet but not here.

I like the share feature on Google Reader. You'll find my shares of rss feed items on facebook and linkedin. They'll let you know what I am finding of interest.

Sites I find that I want to save and share show up there too.

I am finding Facebook and LinkedIn to be a better blog than my blog.

I'm not sure I like that.

And here I sit in the rain, camping, with EVDO internet posting my thoughts.

Finally a bit of quiet, time to clear the brain.

And this was one of those thoughts that needed to be stated, a time in the neternity that needed stating.

I took a couple of days off - work and blogging

2009-06-25T23:41:00.000-04:00

Thinking about my Web Ecosystem

2009-06-22T15:21:00.001-04:00

Thinking about my Web Ecosystem
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

Thinking about he who feeds who, what to be fed where, shared where, stored where

Stored Forever

Stred for a network eternity,

a neternity

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

Just horsing around

2009-06-21T01:31:00.000-04:00

A totally random thought

2009-06-21T01:28:00.000-04:00

Father's

2009-06-21T01:19:00.000-04:00

My baby came home - book not finished yet

2009-06-20T10:11:00.001-04:00

Remember the story of many moons ago.

Boy meets Jeep.

Boy marries Jeep.

9 years later, boy realizes he married wrong Jeep sister.

Family of Jeep takes back sister, promises to make it right.

Jeep comes home today.

Still wrong Jeep.

Still no fixed marriage license.

But now it is an Insurance Company's delay (husband of other sister Jeep).

Stereo works.

http://sloppynet.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-baby-is-still-gone.html

June 3rd, 2009

"It is supposed to be back to me now.It is not.Story is that it is being worked on. It needs to be safety checked in order to correct the wrong licensing that the dealer did back in 2000. The dealer is doing it which is right. But they are taking their time.I want it back.Now."

http://sloppynet.blogspot.com/2009/05/this-is-my-jeep-just-before-heading-off.html

May 26th, 2009

"A snafu when I bought it put the wrong plates on two side by side Jeeps. I have had the wrong Jeep for 9 years. The VIN on the Jeep does not match my registration and all of my paperwork.
The dealer picked it up today to get a safety check done on iit in order to transfer the physical vehicle into my name. Then I will be able to get current plates and drive it on the road. So I hope."

IT's not the quantity of your posts that matter, it's the quality - unless you are a newspaper

2009-06-20T10:02:00.000-04:00

Elvis has left the building - a sense of humour remains

2009-06-20T09:58:00.000-04:00

"Aw, snap!" , says FriendFeed.

"It must be your Flaky Connection", replies Google.

"...a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life!", exclaims Alice.

6uess what - US digital TV switchover hits Canada

2009-06-13T00:45:00.001-04:00

6uess what - US digital TV switchover hits Canada
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

It would seem that Bell expressvu forgot or just did not care to get there digital tuners in place.

It's these last minute changes that cause so many problems.

Say what ?

You mean that had over 2 years to get ready ?

Oh.

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

Letter to the Editor

2009-06-11T11:02:00.000-04:00

One of the best and shortest ever Letters to the Editor...

"The NHL obviously fears that if Hamilton gets a professional hockey team, Toronto will want one too."Ed Shannon, Toronto, The Globe And Mail, May 9, 2009

Feedmap update - added QIK.com, now I can video live to youtube from my cellphone

2009-06-09T22:17:00.006-04:00

Way too complex.
My dearest teenager noticed my feedmap on my screen and critiqued it.
She said it was way too complex.
Said if I showed it to a teacher I would get a bad mark.
How right she is.
I could change the names and the feed spagetti and meat balls would look
like a large Enterprise's application architecture before an ESB and SOA.
I need a feed broker. Not an aggreator but broker.
I want the master in the middle not on the outside. Things like FriendFeed
and Facebook want my face.
They want to be between me and the Internet.
I want control in the middle.
And I want it to make sense to a teenager.
What we have today is incredibly powerful but it is unusable except to
Internet Masters.
Today I can record a video using my cellphone while at a concert. When
I end the recording, it will be automatically uploaded to Youtube. It will
show up on my facebook wall. It will be sent to my blogger blog. It will
show up on twitter. People will find it on FriendFeed. It might make it to
Plaxo. LinkedIn hasn't joined the game yet but likely will. It will make
it to my igoogle page and to google reader.And of course, notices of all
this will make it to my button.ca domain as email which will send it to
gmail and then on to outlook and outlook mobile.
Pheww. Got that ?
I end this post having made my point.
Ross 1, Internet 0

When Irish Eyes are on you

2009-06-09T13:32:00.001-04:00

When Irish Eyes are on you
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

Everything must come to an end, just the same as the Wildwood weed

2009-06-09T09:34:00.000-04:00

I was thinking about the reign of General Motors as the north american powerhouse of automobiles. Thinking about the changes that have come to pass over the past 100 years.

- radio was it; now we have tv, internet, video games, podcasts, dvd's
- horse and buggy; automobiles, trains, planes, internet, telecommuting
- eaton; walmart, amazon

What has stayed the same ?

Coke!! Since 1906 and an interesting aside, my house was built in 1906.

Take a snapshot today of the timeline of changes an 80 year old would have experienced in their lifespan. Then time capsule it and take it out for a look see when we are eighty.

Better still, draft your own predictive timeline of change. I doubt anyone really could do one except for those in their 70's.

Ouch that must have hurt

2009-06-06T22:47:00.001-04:00

Ouch that must have hurt
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

Imagine losing a playoff game 5 to 0

Now what will Don Cherry have to say ?

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

Big game tonight - series tied 2 2

2009-06-06T11:20:00.001-04:00

Big game tonight - series tied 2 2
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

Hello hockey fans

Tonights game might be the biggest of the series - winner get within 1 game of the Stanley Cup.

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

The Feedmap that I feed on a mostly daily basis

2009-06-05T12:51:00.007-04:00

The world of our web 2.0 is one of feeds instead of links. Our old
world had us go to sites and post things. Now we can link social
network type sites to each other via feeds.

My collection of sites that I have a space on and collections of 'friends'
as they are called, have feeds from each other and to each other in
some cases.

They are also connected to me via email.

Here is what my feedmap looks like:

You can click on the feedmap image for a closer look.

This network of feeds let's me 'say' something and have
it automatically appear on a number of sites and be pushed
out to my network of networks.

It works quite well. And it now takes very little effort on
my part to participate all other the place with people I know
and some I don't really know yet.

I don't post, blog or tweet - I feed.

who's version of the Internet is better ?

2009-06-05T00:23:00.000-04:00

Some of the Internet is not within the United States.

For those of you who are, this is one of our views of the Internet
that you will never see.

Now the question is, who's version of the Internet is better ?

i bing'ed myself

2009-06-04T00:35:00.001-04:00

I tried out the newest and greatest of search. Bing.

It's Microsoft's latest and greatest and maybe their last attempt to win the game of search.

I tried one search and I am sold. They may have done it.

I googled something I know. Me.

The first result floored me. It's actually the main place of me on the net.

My personal domain name.

Then twitter, youtube, patents, friendfeed all on the first page.

Page two of the results go all internet wierd but who cares.

Bing knows about me. What else does it know ?

This is one story that has yet to be told. Listen as I am sure there
will be lots to hear over then next days and months.

I just love this - maybe we are all dogs

2009-06-03T18:35:00.001-04:00

I just love this - maybe we are all dogs
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

My baby is still gone

2009-06-03T18:32:00.002-04:00

My baby is still gone
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

It is supposed to be back to me now.

It is not.

Story is that it is being worked on. It needs to be safety checked in order to correct the wrong licensing that the dealer did back in 2000. The dealer is doing it which is right. But they are taking their time.

I want it back.

Now.

Sent from my Treo™ Pro smartphone.

Today I turned on AdSense to get a sense of how read this blog is

2009-06-02T23:55:00.001-04:00

I really don't expect to make anything. I'd be so surprised if I make a single cent.

and this is soccer without the rain

2009-06-02T23:42:00.003-04:00

I kind of like the treo pro's camera. It is able to take a sort

of quality image. Nothing I get excited about but enough to

take a 'web' class image. Low light performance is not the

greatest but it does work and I can see from the image what

it was I wanted to remember.

Image 1 - bright sunny day

Image 2 - sunset, rainbow & soccer field

Image 3 - doctor's waiting room

Soccer induced memories

2009-06-02T23:38:00.002-04:00

I am here at an out of town soccer practice for one of the little ones where there is a costa rica class downpour and they are out there getting soaked

Meanwhile back at the ranch, one is out of town for her first ever game - other two are at our local sportss complex each at a practice.

I thought it would be rude to listen to media while sitting with the parents so I brought nothing in particular to listento. I find myself in the van in the quiet as I am concerned that the battery might not have enough juice left to start it if I turn the radio on. I left the battery booster pack in the workshop charging after I used it with the lawnmower. That btw, works fine as long as you bring the trailer behind it with a tire pump. Only three pump ups were required for both the front and back yards.

Btw using my redfly which has sat on the van floor for over a week uncharged. It powered on in 3 seconds as usual and still was over 3/4 charged. Phone is charging on cig lighter and they are bluetoothing with each other.

Am using my motorolla s9's with the phone. They make a magic threesome: treo pro winmo 6.1, redfly, m s9's. I sound like an advertisement for misunderstood technologies.

And so I should. I did own a beta vcr.

Blogging from the couch

2009-05-30T00:38:00.001-04:00

Blogging from the couch
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

Watching elvis costello's tv show, blogging a bit, uploading pics to smugmug, enjoying the quiiet and the tunes if that makes any sense.

If you have kids, you will know what I mean.

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

Imagine having 686,782 people following you on twitter

2009-05-30T00:22:00.000-04:00

The simple press of 100 keys and over half a million people are contacted.

Well, maybe cause when you send a tweet there is no guarantee that the sound in the forest is heard.

This seems like an improbable situation

2009-05-30T00:09:00.001-04:00

This seems like an improbable situation
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

But it has happened. Except it was the otherway around. Bronco went down in the wrong elevator. Lucky for him and the building's cleaning staff, he had a harness on (not a collar) and the leash broke easily.

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

My cellphone is faster than my highspeed internet

2009-05-29T23:54:00.002-04:00

My cellphone is faster than my highspeed internet
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

And it hurts so bad

Sent from my Treo™ Pro smartphone.

Are we ready to navigate ?

2009-05-29T23:50:00.000-04:00

I'm ready to upload pictures from soccer last night. My pc was slow
sorting and editing the pics. Picasa does not deal with Nikon raw files
that quickly. Finished cropping and sharpening this evening.

BUT .....

My fricken high speed internet is giving me 3mb/s download
speed and 7kb/s upload. If even that. My speed test can't even
complete on the upload phase.

I guess my road to smugmug is either dial-up or ala Amazon's
cloud services via a physical shipment of a portable hard drive.

Imagine that by the way, the leader in cloud computing has
you ship your data to them on a physical hard drive cause the
net just isn't fast enough. I feel the pain right now.

I have a few MB's to send, imagine a few TB's.

At least my old school ways are current again. We used to ship
removeable disk packs around. Back then, the first ones I
used were 5mb.

I still have a 12" 10mb around here somewhere. That was from
when disks were disks and real computers had flashing
lights.

This is my Jeep just before heading off to become mine again

2009-05-26T17:08:00.001-04:00

This is my Jeep just before heading off to become mine again
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

A snafu when I bought it put the wrong plates on two side by side Jeeps.

I have had the wrong Jeep for 9 years. The VIN on the Jeep does not match my registration and all of my paperwork.

The dealer picked it up today to get a safety check done on iit in order to transfer the physical vehicle into my name. Then I will be able to get current plates and drive it on the road.

So I hope.

Sent from my Treo Pro smartphone.

I'm on fire for ya' baby

2009-05-23T23:28:00.001-04:00

I rented an HHR in San Francisco one time.

Someone left a note on the window proclaiming:

"Dude, that is one butt ugly car".

It didn't have flames.

An HHR with flames is a different car than one without.

Watching my luggage load when .....

2009-05-23T23:15:00.002-04:00

first came the jungle exotics

then my main bag

finally my gadget case but only after it was scanned, re-scanned and then loaded.

What all can I say ?

2009-05-23T22:56:00.002-04:00

Ramblings from the couch....

1) Watched Hockey Night in Canada.
2) Bill of BilTel should check his sphelling; satallite usually has only one 'a' , eh
3) Bill seems to prefer to work for Canadians fans, hasn't heard of the Sens and should not be allowed to work for leaf's fans
4) Summer is here and so are the Iced Capp's
5) I've found Jool's Holland

Dog, Man and Machine

2009-05-15T23:30:00.000-04:00

We don't have a dog anymore but this automatic dog washer seems like it could do dogs , young children and sleeping bags.

http://www.time.com/time/picturesoftheweek/0,29409,1895117_1877064,00.html

I am now a published blogger

2009-05-15T22:00:00.002-04:00

You can get your Kindle and read me too !!!!

Time to get out of Dodge, the sherriff is back in town

2009-05-15T18:39:00.000-04:00

Twitter is bigger than I thought

2009-05-15T08:33:00.001-04:00

I was reading my FriendFeed summary (sort of like a TiVo for twitter, rss feeds, comments) and I came across a posting about Oprah having over 1 million followers on Twitter. This means Twitter has over 1 million users.

That's alot of tweet potential.

I wonder who the 15 people than Oprah follows are ?

from treo 700wx to treo pro

2009-05-14T00:18:00.000-04:00

I just upgraded my aging windows mobile 5 treo for an shiney, new windows mobile 6.1 treo pro and I like it.

I work for a company that is a Bell Mobility customer. So, that means an iphone is not a consideration. I'm still not sure i would want one.

A keyboard with keys is something that I still think I need. I do type on my phone. Email is a must and being a Microsoft Exchange/Office shop means that Office Mobile is a plus.

New shiney thing is faster, windows mobile 6 seems to address many of the flaws in 5. I added a 16gb msd card to it so I can have stuff on it that I might want as well as stuff I know I want.

Wifi adds flexibility and speed too.

All in all, I got what I expected.

and daughter with the itouch and a basic flip phone thinks it is cool and want it.

finally my itouch envy is over.

and facebook on it seems better than the pc browser version. Being forced, due to screen size constraints, to focus on the important aspects of facebook make for a better user experience.

They sure are cute but...

2009-05-13T21:19:00.001-04:00

We have too many Canadian Geese in Canada. Where they used to be wild, they are now prevalent in inhabited areas.

It is so nice to see the babies, healthy, growing and thriving. But beaches and parks are now having to deal with the infestation of geese and the droppings they leave behind.

Parks that once were playgrounds for young and old are now littered with goose poop.

If only there were a market for goose poop. We could offer a reward of $1 per pound like we offer rewards for empty bottles. The homeless could comb the parks and trade goose poop for cash. They collect bottles along the shores of the rivers in Ottawa and we've noticed an improvement in the shoreline. The collection model works. It's proven.

But who would buy our goose poop ?

If you know, call 1 800 O canada

My Kindle is bigger than yours

2009-05-13T15:29:00.000-04:00

Box which is an app linked to LinkedIn has adopted the same business model

2009-05-11T20:21:00.000-04:00

The app is free until you want more or want to know something. Like who downloaded a file. Or in this case the address of the downloader. Rates are $9-$20 per month !!!

I like Linkedin but.... $500.00 per year is their step up from free ???

2009-05-11T14:10:00.001-04:00

I think LinkedIn is a good tool for business networking.

It has the right features.

But I was shocked to see what they think is a reasonable price other than free. Their charges per month are what I would have expected annually. I think this will cause them to flop unless they really don't need paid subscriptions. $500 per year is what they think I should pay for the ability to see who looked at my profile. Even $300 per year is out of line.

So I will stay free.

Performance Management - Planning for Capacity Requirements before you need it

2009-05-04T17:13:00.000-04:00

I observe the issues some sites on the Internet have with capacity planning. Some have issues with performance management; this being a more holistic view including how the application is designed not just what is required to support it.

It is the same inside the firewall as outside. Applications are launched and underperform. Applications start underperforming over time.

I remember back to the late 80's when I was leading the architecture team building an Integrated Control System for Public Payphones for Northern Telecom. We found that the peak daily usage of payphones was just when school finished. We designed around this major peak. By buffering and staging/delaying updates we were able to greatly reduce the hardware requirements. By designing to the workload, we were able to reduce it's impact on system sizing. This was greatly valuable back then as hardware typically was half the cost of a major SI project.

These days the problem is not so much of cost, as one of not being able to just throw hardware at the performance problem. Software design and application architecture typically effect whether or not an application can scale to meet demands.

I came across this chart and it brought back memories of this project. As you can see, the peak football viewing audience is matched in occurance by mobile football activity. The pc activity is different, the usage is not the same.

What does it mean ? It means that was is and what is was.

Costa Rica Trip Report

2009-04-19T01:34:00.000-04:00

Results of my trip to Costa Rica are best viewed

at http://neternity.smugmug.com/gallery/7942780_ZUExf/1/515510103_YWhDv

and at http://youtube.com/rossbutton

A sneek preview is below:

Somebody must have written one hell of a business case for this baby

2009-04-16T01:52:00.001-04:00

Somebody must have written one hell of a business case for this baby
Originally uploaded by sloppynet

It's not that I don't want one but this is for use in the airport in Toronto. I've never seen one elsewhere.

I fell off the Internet and I liked it

2009-04-15T23:15:00.002-04:00

Yes, I did.

I fell off the Internet. Literally.

Dropped in for a visit and vacation to family in Costa Rica. 14 days with on and off connectivity.

About 8 days or so in, my internet service for my button/neternity.ca domains stopped working. My personal internet exchange server went offline as did my file services and voice mail to email redirection. Not a happy camper me was.

I am now thinking that it is time to drop off the internet in the physical sense and go purely cloud based. I'll still keep my vast image, video and music libraries on my physical servers but will let go of hosting email, contacts and calendars.

I think. This is a big step for me so I will have to think about it.

Still only partly online now. Expect youtubes and smugmugs of Costa Rica soon. The gang of 2 adults and 6 kids generated 50gb of video and images.

Big short coming of the cloud - video is limited to 10 minutes on both youtube and smugmug. We have 3 1/2 hours and I will not break it up into 21 or more little clips.

I've been chewing up them internets

2009-03-21T20:12:00.000-04:00

I've been lax on blogging lately. Maybe that will stay.

I have been busy as usual taking pictures and video. I've started putting more video up on smugmug. Their HD video support is quite impressive. Scaled viewing is great when sharing videos to people with different video streaming capabilities. I also like that people can download a video as well. Is there much to see, no. It's locked down, limited access to family, friends and people in my known network of kids sports teams and kid's school connections.

Usage is unlimited both in terms of bandwidth and storage. I will likely be over 30 gb's on-line. The only stuff I put up is stuff I am sharing.

It is a pay for use service and service is provided that for me is money well spent.

It's also my little internet of the many internets.

Slow news day in Canada

2009-03-18T13:29:00.002-04:00

White House playground structure uses parts from Manitoba company

U.S. President Barack Obama recently had a swing and play set installed on the White House lawn for his children that use parts supplied by Acrylon Plastics Inc., a supplier in southern Manitoba.

Full Story:http://links.cbc.ca/a/l.x?T=jncickgoiabhpbidnocilbcldh&M=37

Minding my own business, being told how I can surf

2009-03-05T10:16:00.001-05:00

Like the subject line says, I was minding my own business. Taking a coffee break, reading up on the latest news on the Internet. Like a good web 2.0'er, I was checking my rss feeds using the cloud based google reader. To be buzz word compatible, I do hope that google reader is services based and built to conform to a services oriented architecture. But I digress.

If you look at the image below, I found a video clip in the GigaOM rss feed of Jon Stewart doing a lampoon of twitter (I think). Why do I think ?

Well the title looks appealing but once I click on the video clip to play it, I get told that I am a canadian and must derive my viewing pleasure elsewhere.

The global boundaryless Internet has boundaries and chinaesque restrictions, filters and controls. We shall see what the future unfolds.

How peculiar

2009-03-04T20:46:00.001-05:00

Something is technically wrong and I am thanked for noticing it.

And what do I get as my thank-you gift ?

A bit of my life, I guess. No lost time tweeting and being tweeted.

I am a light twitter. I wonder how often this happens. I read all about the growing pains that twitter is experiencing and the major money that they are raising to fix what ails them.

Heh, TWITTER

Need a battle scarred, experienced architect ? Call me in for a consult. What I don't know, I know people who do.

Best to leave me a comment here rather than send me a tweet.