Metrics for dog walking

Came up with this while walking my dogs this morning. I decided that there should be a way to measure the success of a dog on a walk. Here is my scoring system.
-- Unproductive stops together: -5pts
-- Unproductive stops alone: -10 pts
-- drunken weaving on the sidewalk: - 5pts (-10 pts if causes leash tangling)
-- Productive stop: "+10pts
-- Purposeful tangling of the leashes around owners feet: -10pts
-- Straying while owner is picking up productivity: -5pts
-- Curious in anyting on the street: -10pts
-- Carrying a stick home: Too cute to judge at the moment, but a gold star was given.

When I got home I found that both dogs were grossly in the negative. So, as any good manager/owner would, I proceeded to explain to them how to improve.
-- Barking and not paying attention during post walk staff meetings: -5pts

I am not sure they have completely grasped the meaning of negative points, but I sure felt better :-)

Back to blogging…

It has been way to long since my last blog.  I have been very busy and there is ample material to talk about.  Some major topics in the upcoming posts will be about Software Development Project Management, a river and its natural vs. attempted forced flow, sanity, and a new dog in my life.

I wondered recently if blogging was a thing of the past.  I tried to research to see what was out there, and of course found the usual contemporary replacements, such as twitter, instagram, Facebook, and many more.  All are suitable for specific things, but simple blogging still seems to be a freeform, adaptable, and useful approach to sharing.

I found myself re-energized on the blog after setting one up for my girlfriend who wants to share her experiences while in Culinary school at Schoolcraft College.  I also set up her twitter account.  Both should me that things have changed a bit and are pretty cool.  I look forward to getting back into sharing what is on my mind.

Binking of Bing

Microsoft is challenging Google today with the slogan "Bing it on!".  Granted, I am not a very big Bing user, but I just went to bing.com and found that it is surprisingly (or perhaps not) similar to Google - minus a whole  bunch of interesting developer stuff.  So I challenge the Bing development team to 

"Bink up something new!"

Conspiracy and more non-essential ramblings

Do you ever wonder if the news is connected in some way similar to some those mystery stories from the book store (yes I did say store, translate Amazon).  Take today for instance, there are two stories that seem completely unrelated, but suppose they were actually linked.

French Alps Shooting

"French police have assigned 60 officers to investigate yesterday's shooting near Lake Annecy, which claimed the lives of four people -- a father, mother and grandmother in a British-registered BMW estate and a passing cyclist.

Three of the four people were shot in the head in what the prosecutor in charge of the case called an act of "extreme savagery." No weapon has been found.

A four-year-old girl who was found eight hours later crouching beneath her mother's corpse has been talking to psychologists about her trauma.

A seven-year-old girl found by the side of the car is "slowly improving" in hospital after being shot in the shoulder and suffering multiple and "extremely violent" blows to the head.

The people in the car are thought to have been the family of Baghdad-born Saad al-Hilli, who has a home at Claygate, near Esher in southern England.

Prosecutor Eric Maillaud says investigators are not ruling out any possibility, including that all four people who died were collateral victims of an unidentified crime."

Sounds like a terrible event and those poor children.  I truly feel awful for this family.  God help them.  With that said, take this next reporting and suppose that their is some connection.

Plane ordered back to Philadelphia

"(Reuters) - A US Airways plane bound for Dallas was ordered back to Philadelphia International Airport early on Thursday after police received a call about explosives on board that they later determined was a hoax.

The incident began with a phone call to Philadelphia police at about 7:30 a.m. local time (1130 GMT), when a caller reported that a passenger on board the flight had illegal devices or a hazardous substance, according to authorities.

The plane, Flight 1267, which had taken off for Dallas a short time earlier, was diverted back to the airport, authorities said. One passenger was taken from the plane for questioning.

Authorities evacuated and searched the plane, found no explosives and later determined the initial call appeared to be a prank being played on the passenger, who was in his 20s.

"There was no emergency. There was a threat, but that threat was unfounded," Philadelphia Police Inspector Joe Sullivan told a news conference.

"That flight was never in any danger. And I just want to stress right now that the male that was briefly taken in for investigation has committed no crime... This is an ongoing investigation, but at this time all indications are that this was a hoax."

He added, "a pretty nasty trick was played on a passenger.""

Ok, yes this was a terrible joke, but suppose there was a connection between the two stories.  Suppose the killings in the Alps actually prevented a terrorist event from happening on Flight 1267.  Of course this is ridiculous, but when one story reports a crime with collateral victims of an unidentified crime, and the other story reports a hoax or a prank being played, its hard not to stop and think about it.

Yes, I think I should stop reading those mystery stories late at night...

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On to my next, non-essential item to discuss:

Just found this, and will likely add it to my bag of conspiracies.

111,111,111 * 111,111,111 = 123,456,789,876,543

Hmmm... curious that there are 9 1s and the product counts up to 9 then down to 3, which is of course a multiple of 9.

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Also, If you ever wondered why or think that your growth has been stunted for some reason a recent reporting from "those researchers" has proof that you grow by about 8mm (O.3in) every night when you are asleep, but shrink to your former height the following day.  

Notes and Links from a lazy day surfing yesterday

Yesterday I downloaded Google Currents to my tablet and starting getting caught up on all the news and interesting things that people are thinking about.  Before I knew it three hours had gone by and I had forgotten to eat breakfast.  Currents is a collection of free online magazines and rss feeds. I was amazed at how many magazines were available and how many I would likely read on a daily basis.  I added Fast Company, 500px, Smithsonian, Green Car Reports, and PRI to name just a few.  On top of all the magazine articles Currents also provides a customized top trending news stories listing (much like Google News).  I enjoyed getting lost in my new stack of magazines and newspapers and about 1 hr in I started to take notes of other things I wanted to look up or people I wanted to reach out to.  Here is a snipet of my notes.

• Learn from Anytime Fitness how to be an enlightened company where the people that work there "love their job".  Are You a Level 5 Company
• What is Gecko from Mozilla and why would I put it on my phone?  
• What are the top 10 Electric Vehicle cities in the US based on count of charging stations in total (data of DoE).  Out of the totle 4364 stations here is the top 10 cities.
1. Chicago (92)
2. Portland (80)
3. LA (75)
4. Orlando (75)
5. Austin (73)
6. Houston (65)
7. SF (64)
8. Seattle (62)
9. Honolulu (59)
10. NYC (57)
• Send my friend Paul an email regarding the articles that quoted him in the Green Car Reports magazine- Nice job Paul!
• Look up the difference between Google BigQuery and HADOOP
• Learn more about Nokia Maps and why they are being chosen over Google maps.  Also what about UpNext, a mapping company that recently was purchased by Amazon
• Share the info on the Java Zero Day flaw with friends at work.
• How cool is OpenStreetMap... Can it be used to perform routing functions
• 90% of top paid iOS apps have been hacked.... dont feel bad Apple, 100% of the top paid Android apps have been hacked.

An opportunity?

Was observing my daughter on the computer this afternoon. She was actively Facebooking with friends logged onto FB, while at the same time actively texting on her phone with those that were not logged onto FB. This seems like one of those situations that should be made easier. Sort of like when we all had several devices on our hips that eventually were merged into the modern day cell or smart phone.

I know there is the ability to update facebook and get facebook messages through SMS on a cell, but for some reason that feels difficult and may take longer than it really needs to. Or maybe this all that needs to happen.

What are your thoughts, keep in mind not everyone has a smart phone so those really cool FB apps for phones are cool, but not available to everyone.

Google Voice app blocked by Apple and ATT

Interesting short read on Apple, AT&T, the iPhone, and how people want to use Google Voice. Read before considering an iPhone purchase. I am becoming more and more a fan of the Palm Pre phone and phones that use the Google Android OS.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/31/AR2009073100971.html

How to setup Google Voice to use OnStar HFC

Now that you have recieved your new Google Voice number, and decide that it would be cool to add your OnStar HFC number along with your cell and other numbers you will need to make use of a few tips.

Here are a few tips I discovered on how to setup Google Voice (GV) so that your OnStar HFC number is used.

• To activate your HFC number with Google Voice you will need a car that has a button on the steering wheel that looks like a someone speaking. This is because part of the activation process is to enter in two digits when GV calls the number to activate. To use this feature you press the button in the middle of the call, say "Dial", wait for the prompt, and say the numbers to dial. Tip for 36 say three, six not thrity six.
• Once you have your number activated then you want to turn Call Presentation off under settings in GV

Now you are good to go. Easy as that!

One more tip. Because of the way HFC answers the call, if you have multiple numbers setup and Call Presentation off it will always answer the call first and get the call. So, if you know you are not in the car, and you have multiple numbers activated than I recommend turning Call Presentation on so that HFC does not always answer first.

Google Voice, A Definate Home Run!

OK, when I heard about Google Voice months ago I thought it was a really cool idea. I just got my number and set it up with other numbers. This product is revolutionary! It is totally awesome. Enrollment was painless and fast. All features tested out great. The web page is well done and easy to use. Google really hit a home run. I can't wait to share this with others. Here are some the features I thought were really cool.

• Calls to one number (my google number) are forwarded to all numbers registered simultaneously
• Voice mail collected at my google number is stored online and translated into text. You can also play it back.
• I can listen into voice mail being left, real-time (ok, that is kinda creepy)
• Text messages of a voice mail are sent to a forwarded phone and also translated to text
• And tons more.

Oh and check out the call widget on the left. Clicking on that will connect your phone and my forwarded phone. Right now I have it setup to only go to voice mail. Give it a try and leave me a message.

The Economy changes spending habits

As a continuation of the Trend post below I just finished reading an article in the Chicago Tribune from last month ( http://tiny.cc/pXFdY ). It picks up with adding unmanageable debt as an effect of the current economy, which with the other effects lead to:

• Spending more practically
• Buying smaller homes (if you can sell your larger one)
• Eat out less
• Save for large purchases rather than use credit

The author correctly reasons that this is a moral shift that is making people reconsider how their lives really change when they are spending more.

Combined a new grounded consumer begins to emerge that is/will:

• limit "stuff" they own
• live more within their means
• think that life is not defined by how much credit they have or what they buy
• reconsider what was once considered a necessity to be more of a luxury now.

While thinking about the effects of Trends I find myself thinking about what will happen next as an effect or cause?