Ellie Asks Why Annex

Medical Arts

2011-12-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

Clinical Cases and Images posted an article about Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary of Medical Terms (online edition) in 2008. It remains an excellent reference source, useful for medical terms and for general interest topics.

While visiting the Clinical Cases blog, I found and followed a link to the official website of the most well-known medical illustrator of the 20th century, Frank Netter.

I spent many happy hours looking at Netter-signed illustrations when we lived in New Mexico. There were so many of them in my father's medical reference books. Dr. Netter was an exceptional artist.

Did Frank Netter illustrate anything else, beside human anatomy? Did he have other artistic inclinations?

Frank Netter was born in 1906. He wanted to pursue a career as an artist. However his parents wanted him to do work that would ensure a good living. So he went to medical school near home, in New York City. Netter gradually transitioned from clinical practice, as a general surgeon, to work as a full time, widely acclaimed medical illustrator:

"The first comprehensive collection of Netter’s work, a single volume, was published by CIBA Pharmaceuticals in 1948. It met with such success that over the following 40 years the collection was expanded into an 8-volume series—each devoted to a single body system."

This multi-volume series was referred to as Netter's Greenbooks. Elsevier Publishing acquired Dr. Netter's collection of hand-drawn, then painted, medical artwork after his death in 1991.

That was as much information as I could find in the biographical information from Elsevier.

Frank Netter's images showed great sensitivity toward his subjects. I remain curious what sort of artwork he did in his spare time, and in the years before he attended medical school. The Morisstown Museum in New Jersey exhibited Dr. Netter's work recently. It was a large show, and ran from November 2010 through March 2011. More insight could probably be found there.

The Tree of Life

2011-11-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful hand-woven silk carpet. Solveigh told me that it represents the Tree of Life.

Mrs. Solveigh Calderin is a nice Scandinavian woman I met on the Internet. She seems to know a lot about fine wool rugs and carpets. I found the image (above) on her website the other day.

This is NOT a sponsored endorsement! The Tree of Life is, well, it is symbolic of everything. While highlighting the good. It has been on my mind recently, as Rosh Hashanah was a few weeks (okay, months) ago.

Another Change to Google Plus Profiles

2011-09-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

Google has changed the way that links are displayed on the "About" section of your Google profile. Instead of one list, it is now broken up. There are other features too. It is probably a good idea to take a look, make sure everything is displaying how you prefer. For more details, see Google Plus Profiles Change The Way Links Are Displayed.

Other highlights

Chinese Google+ buttons are now available. These ones will actually be meaningful, unlike the Chinese character tattoos I see so often.
The Google Plus Resource blog announces Google Plus for Job Seekers. This is something ESPECIALLY relevant for me.
Blogger now requires blog owners to log in using a Google account. In the past, one could use a separate Blogger login. Google owns Blogger, so there is some logic to this. However, I am curious if it will impact blogspot OpenID's.

Lost blogger sighted in the wild

2011-08-31T03:11:00.000-07:00

I saw this on the Blogger user help forum: I can't find my blog on the Web, where is it?

Succor was given. Blog and blog owner were reunited.

I was slightly surprised when I realized how frequently this question was posted. Until I did the same thing with an experimental blog of my own. It is also on Blogger. Somewhere. No, I haven't found it yet.

Complexity

2011-08-24T09:07:00.001-07:00

Complexity is a gallery of images that I found on Flickr. Flickr is a photo (and image) sharing site owned by Yahoo.

This is a themed collection-- visual representations of complex systems. All images were created with remarkable detail. Good resolution and clarity were retained, even at high magnification. And they are beautiful.

* I included links to the underlying assumptions, as given by each artist.

War Is Hell

2011-07-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

Every market needs a bear. Or three.

This is a lush, beautifully illustrated website, by the way. That should serve as an additional reason to click on through and have a look around.

Market Anthropology: War Is Hell

Entertaining Video by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank

2011-07-11T05:50:00.021-07:00

This is the latest installment of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank's Drawing Board video series. The Cleveland Fed on YouTube describes the videos as a series of

Really bad drawings, with real simple explanations.

I beg to differ.

The Inflation* video (see below to watch) is dated May 20, 2011, yet has a mere 112 page views. It was more amusing, and informative, than I expected. I've seen far worse on YouTube, sometimes even from producers of widely acclaimed educational videos. Contrast with the Cleveland Fed's research department: They make no claim of multi-media production expertise whatsoever!

Each image is hand-sketched using a thick black magic marker. Narration is very clear. Subject matter varies for each video in the series.

* The specific focus is price stability in the U.S. economy, and its effect on employment, for finding as well as keeping a job.

The Top 1000

2011-07-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

This is a very useful list. Useful enough to base an entire post on it? Yes.

What is it?

It is a list of the top 1000 websites worldwide, based on unique visitor counts, as measured by Google Ad Planner. The list is updated monthly with new Ad Planner data sets as they are released.

When I checked on June 30, 2010, the list was dated April 2011, so there seems to be a one to two month lag in reporting. I don't know if reporting is based on beginning-of-month or end-of-month. Nevertheless, for many purposes, this update frequency is adequate, particularly for the top 1000 sites.

Criteria and details

The list only considers top-level domains. Not a problem, in my opinion, as I doubt many sub-domains would have sufficient traffic to be included in a Top 1000 website traffic list. Each site on the list includes:

Site category, with category types as specified by Google*
Unique visitor count (users)
Page view count
Whether the site has advertising

Note that the list specifically excludes

adult sites, ad networks, domains that don't have publicly visible content or don't load properly, and certain Google sites

* More information about site categories is available from the Google Ad Planner help page for the list.

China transition photo

2011-07-08T13:05:00.000-07:00

I noticed this striking photo of a high-speed rail station in China. The surprise was the pair of bicyclist riders, pedaling along the dirt road on the right side of the image.

What time was the photograph taken? At dusk? Or dawn? I don't know.

Untitled

By Zhang Lin-Qi on October 4, 2009 at 12:38:35 PM
Camera: SONY model DSC-W130, ISO 400, exposure 1/3 sec.
Flash was not used.
Via Picasa. For more, see linqi zhang photo album.

Special felines and a minor mapping puzzle

2011-06-17T08:58:00.038-07:00

Part One: A most unusual hybrid cat

Funny Blog featured this today. It is more of a specialty hybrid: The Caterpillar!

Funny Blog has a funny cat for you!

Source: Silver Jewelry Life

Part Two: A metaphorical cat of time and space

This is L0L0 Cat, all L0L0 and without the actual cat. It is more geographical, or cartographic than feline-related. But it wasn't like that always, as the idea came to me from the LOLcat internet meme. Another point is that the caption is truly L0L0 rather than LOL or LOLO.

I'll give one clue to solving the mystery of the L0L0 cat location, and why it is special. The clue is "What is the name of the official Google map product blog on Blogger?" Not the URL, but the actual name of the blog.

Have a look at the map, and observe the caption at the bottom center. Remember that the map may be enlarged on the website here, I is not necessary to open on another page if you don't want to, although you can. I didn't use Google Earth, only Google Maps, so no additional software is required to view.

View L0L0 Center in a larger map

Second clue: The triangular red map-marker (with an exclamation point) shows the physical location of the Land of L0L0. But there is something additional that makes it special.

I hope I haven't given too much information. Please reply with your answers in the comment section below!

Ultra short epistemology post

2011-05-24T00:23:00.000-07:00

So many clever people, such good writing, so little time!

I read something that I liked today. Let me share the joy. It seems fitting, particularly in these uncertain times, with a possible rapture scheduled for the weekend, amongst other things:

Probabilities are for understanding... Truth is a rhetorical device.

Tempered by this wry observation

On the other hand, "justified at an 83.5% probability" [leaves something to be desired] for whipping the tribes folk into a frenzied mob

Via Aretae: Short epistemology post

For more political economy flavored thought delivered with the sincerity of an electrical engineer, see the Aretae blog. And his list of BlogFriends.

Some of my own favorites are featured:

The Volokh Conspiracy, which sounds sinister but isn't. They are actually a very loosely affiliated and mostly cordial cabal of blogging law professors.
Modeled Behavior
TheMoneyIllusion, a very sane and friendly site where the author and readers discuss serious policy matters in an agreeable, self-deprecating way. Two typically understated samples are Other activities bumped and Still Not Blogging.
xkcd: A math, physics and etymology web comic. It is also supposed to be about sarcasm and love, but there is not so much of that lately. I even wrote my own tribute to Randall Munroe, the author and creator of xckd in my earlier post, With love and geo-hashing.
Greg Mankiw's Blog: I think he won a Nobel Prize. He's an often reviled pillar of economic orthodoxy, whatever that actually means. Maybe "University of Chicago-school monetarist" or "economic heterodoxy" would be more accurate. He has an arrogant style sometimes, but is very bright. Bonus: Mankiw gives links to sites with nice free things. Like economics or statistics textbooks. Or gratis access to the Brookings Institute economics journal.
Overcoming Bias
Foseti
The Unenumerated Here's a sample that I liked.

And many more.

When 40 characters are not enough

2011-04-25T13:01:00.004-07:00

The Official Gmail Blog recently announced an enhancement that should improve Gmail usability.

Gmail Label Length Extended

As of April 21, 2011, label names can be longer, up to 225 characters. Previously, maximum label length was only 40 characters. This was functionally restrictive for certain users, particularly those who converted from Outlook, or accessed Gmail through IMAP.

It was also inconvenient for certain non-English language Gmail users, e.g. German, due to that language's inherently lengthy structure for adjectives. And it was expressively restrictive for many of the rest of us!

Longer label names improve Gmail user experience

Longer labels for young and old

This feature is not for new labels only. Gmail users can also expand existing label names.

All is revealed

Gmail label names have a tendency to become rather lengthy, particularly if using Nested Labels. The second part of the recent announcement included an advisory that Gmail will automatically shorten any hyper-long* labels if they would otherwise impede content view.

Doesn't this defeat the original purpose of using a descriptive label? No, because mouse-over and hover reveals the entire label name, with different color blocks for each component.

* That is my own quirky expression, not an actual term used by Gmail.

Spring Storms and Southern Twisters

2011-04-06T00:07:00.001-07:00

Insurance Fraud Irony

2011-03-21T06:19:00.000-07:00

Insurance fraud is on the rise as people face difficult economic times. According to The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, an anti-insurance fraud group, and Life Quotes, Inc

Insurance fraud is a serious crime that costs insurance companies and policyholders alike... The Insurance Information Institute (III) recently estimated that property and casualty fraud cost policyholders $30 billion a year.

The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud recently disclosed some particularly egregious and inane insurance fraud cases, via PRNewswire. I made my own choice selections from the lot.

A corrections officer in Connecticut was defrauding his employer, collecting workers compensation. He had collected over $5,000, with no end in sight, claiming he was injured on the job. He was successful, until he appeared on TV in drag running a race in a contest to win tickets to a Hannah Montana concert. He was caught after his photograph appeared in the local paper, in an article about the contest.
A woman from Virginia allegedly found a rodent in her soup while having dinner at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. She demanded the restaurant give her a $500,000 business liability insurance payout for emotional trauma endured. An autopsy of the mouse revealed that it did not have soup in its lungs, thus did not perish from drowning in the claimant's soup. She was charged with insurance fraud and spent a year in jail.
A couple from Massachusetts would eat glass as a ploy to defraud supermarkets, restaurants and bars. In almost every instance, the establishments paid to avoid a lawsuit. Over a period of five years, the couple collected $200,000 in fraudulent claims. Both were eventually apprehended and charged with fraud.
Today's final sordid story of fraud hails once again from Connecticut. This one featured an ex-convict, who turned to an old classic. To escape consumer debt and a home soon to go into foreclosure, he simply incinerated it. His home owner's insurance policy was a not-insignificant $250,000. He left a frying pan full of animal fat on the stove before leaving the house for an all-day excursion with his family. The strategy worked as intended. The house burned to the ground. However, the man was so taken with his ingenuity that he told acquaintances about his home arson plan. Nor did he hide his intent from his children. They told all to classmates and teachers. School officials promptly notified the authorities.

The highest impact case, the last of the four, was particularly ironic. Investigators reported that if it weren't for the perpetrator's indiscretion, his crime would likely have gone undetected. Due to a profound lack of common sense, he spent seven years in prison instead.

For an industry overview, see Insurance fraud cases remain steady in 2010.

Space Shuttle Launch Viewed From an Airplane

2011-03-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

Chemistry

2011-03-15T03:54:00.001-07:00

Aluminum Necklace circa 1950
0.75 in x 6.25 in.

UPDATE: MOORE'S LAW

I revised the broken link to Moore's Law, and regret any inconvenience this may have caused. 17 March 2011.

This aluminum necklace is on display at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF).

View additional wonders from the "Chemistry and Fashion: Making Modernity" via Exhibits | Chemical Heritage Foundation. Non-electronic viewing is possible too! This exhibit and much more is accessible to the public at the CHF Museum on 315 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Interested in the legacy left by Gordon Moore and his famous observation about the growth of technology? Read the original publication that introduced Moore's Law, Understanding Moore's Law: Four Decades of Innovation, Chapter 4, edited by David Brock.

I'll provide one more chemistry related-link, about Professor A. Geim, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. In the span of ten years, he went from winning an Ig-Noble prize for levitating frogs with magnets to the Nobel Prize for introduction of the extraordinary carbonate graphene.

*Professor Geim is actually a chemist, not a physicist.

Physikalische Typografie

2011-02-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

This is a situation where the German language -- not French, nor Italian and certainly not English, really captures the feeling and nuance of a work of art most eloquently. Physikalische Typografie* means "Typography of Physics."

I like that much better than my prosaic versions:

An Alphabet of Physics Diagrams?
Creatively Capturing Fonts with Physics- truly awful!
26 Physical Letters- not too bad.

The actual subject matter is physics-student-turned artist MunnaOnTheRun's story of his rather abrupt and meteoric transition to artiste and acclaimed graphic designer. The catalyst for his transformation was quite literally the Unified Field Theory of physics. MunnaOnTheRun, and Wikipedia, refer to it as

The Theory of Everything, linking all known physical phenomena.

MunnaOnTheRun was an enthusiastic student. Unfortunately he was also a miserable failure in physical science coursework, by his own admission.

Now fast forward in time. 2005 was designated World Year of Physics in commemoration of Einstein's Theory of Relativity centennial. MunnaOnTheRun wanted to create a typeface from physics diagrams for the event. This is the story of his success, in the artist's own words:

After months of research... I finally got hold of 26 diagrams that looked liked the letters of the alphabet. This poster literally transported me into a parallel universe. I sent this around to graphic designers .... With no formal training in art, and nothing to show for except badly drawn doodles, I started believing that I could make art.

Physics changed everything for me.

*Note that ILoveGraffiti dot de coined that pithy phrase, Physikalische Typografie.

jQuery Loves Developers

2011-02-22T08:30:00.074-07:00

This is a particularly well written presentation about jQuery, including the "new" version 1.3 features. The author posted some additional notes to accompany his original presentation, dated June 2009, in a text transcript.

View more presentations from Remy Sharp.

At 192 pages in length, perhaps the title should be changed to Developers <3 jQuery!

Art Basel Miami Features Building Blocks

2011-02-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Friends with You

"FriendsWithYou is proud to present Building Blocks ... Known for their reductive approach to geometric abstraction and playful imagery, Building Blocks introduces a series of paintings, executed in the artists' customary style."

"Rather than merely flat wall pieces, these ... are two-dimensional extensions of sculptural, graphical and experiential installation works. They are quasi portraits. The abstraction of human visage allows viewers to project their own emotions."

"Continuing the interactive focus, the air inflated sculptures experiment with ... relational artwork."

The Building Blocks exhibit opened during the first week of December 2010.

It runs for several months longer, at 3930 NE 2nd Avenue, 2nd Floor, in the Miami Design District of North Miami Beach in South Florida.

Heinz Automato 4

2011-02-01T00:24:00.001-07:00

Lunar Eclipse

2011-01-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

Second

First

Third

Fourth

Fifth

Sixth

Vertical Lift

2011-01-28T04:48:00.005-07:00

Vertical Lift-off Harrier Jet Style

London Underground a.k.a. Subway Humor

2011-01-21T18:41:00.074-07:00

DFS tube advert, originally uploaded by charliedotgilbert to Flickr on 23 Jul 2009

Enjoy this rebus-style humor in advertising.

Commentary from the content creator:

My take on DFS's tube advert - hopefully it will Turnham Green with envy. If you like this, you'll find similar stuff on www.charliedotgilbert.blogspot.com.

As an afterthought, I realized that I should provide clarification regarding the meaning of "rebus". A rebus is a graphic that combines letters, images, numbers and/ or symbols to represent a phrase. Actually, an entire document could be written as a rebus, there is no limitation.

I believe that Lewis Carroll was fond of the rebus.

This rebus means "Birds of a feather flock together".

It appears here courtesy of the Clip Art page provided free of charge by Florida Center for Instructional Technology, with my grateful acknowledgement.

eBook Reader Product Review

2011-01-12T01:18:00.000-07:00

This is the best assessment of an eBook reader that I've run across. It was written by a bona fide computer scientist. His assessment was not biased by the novelty of the technology. That can happen. I know. I've experienced it.

An eBook reader is a device such as the Amazon Kindle or Apple iPad. Giorgio Sironi addresses certain issues that I would've expected to encounter while reading text on an electronic device instead of an physical book. Yet no one other Giorgio has discussed any of these difficulties anywhere in the many reviews I've read.

"The only problem with reading eBooks is the device you use to read them. My Asus PC is good for writing articles, and skimming blog posts, or for a bit of PHP programming... But for reading extensively, LCD screens will kill us. You know when, as a child, you were told not to stare at the Sun? Here is the same mechanism, on a lesser scale... The LCD screen has a very different light intensity from the surrounding environment, which causes eyestrain due to continuously adapting between the screen and the rest of the world."

The brighter the environment, the less you see on the screen.

"With an e-Ink screen like Kindle's, you must have ... external light to read. This is an advantage for e-Ink devices."

The actual post goes into more detail. But the conclusion is that an LCD-based device is unsuitable for regular use as an eBook reader.

"Forget about iPads- They make wonderful trays for Martini glasses but not as an e-Reader."

Not if you want something that isn't a headache to use.

Love is ...

2010-12-28T10:51:00.013-07:00

This is what I thought of the first time I heard about text analysis and the semantic web

From The Daily Show with Jon Stewart presents EARTH (THE BOOK). First uploaded to Flickr.com by Penguin Books UK on 19 December 2010.

Guide Me Home

2010-11-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

A Near-Future Science Fiction Short Story

My journey began near the site of Google's offices in Beijing, shuttered and dark after permanent closure some years earlier by the government of the People's Republic of China. My destination was Camelback Road in Phoenix, in the U.S.A. My home. I could return. I had completed the assignment.

Time was not of the essence, thankfully. My transport choices were limited, to say the least. I didn't even have a bicycle! I would be traveling on foot for much of the journey. Fortunately, there were a few ferry boats still in operation. A kayak was waiting also. Promises were kept, providing the means to return to U.S. territory in Guam. I would rest briefly in Hawaii and arrived without incident.

Hawaii was beautiful. The photos on the Map did not lie. But I couldn't linger. I returned to my Map. It would be impossible to cross the treacherous waters from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland without it. I traveled by ferry boat and assorted small craft. This was the most difficult part of the route home.

View Larger Map

Finally, after more than 100 days in transit, I reached the coastline of North America. I entered via the more negotiable waterways of Vancouver, although I would've preferred Seattle-Tacoma. The directions said that several short intervals of kayaking would be necessary. I was prepared. I had kept my kayak, but was glad to see the last of it

However, I was very worried about the notoriously strict Canadian border patrol.

Retro-style Microsoft Optical PC Small Footprint Prototype
via The Future and My Imagination

Fortunately, my contact at Google's Redmond headquarters was informed of the situation, meeting me at the border and plying the guards with two crates of brand-new, shrink-wrapped Microsoft PCs with optical processors inside. They are, effectively, quantum computers with the footprint of a Windows 7 wireless phone. Such wonderful contraband, complete with factory installed Chrome Operating System!

You seem surprised. How so? Oh, my apologies! I neglected to mention the massive consolidation that American industry and technology underwent during the economic and societal Aftermath. That's how we refer to it now. Euphemisms are a blessing.

Let me pause a moment and get you caught up. This is what happened. Google and Microsoft consolidated. There were no succession problems following Bill's demise. Robin Gates had years of experience as a Microsoft product manager prior to her marriage.

Google was warmly welcomed by the locals in Washington State and Oregon after the auto da fe that destroyed Facebook. Everyone was delighted when Facebook's not-so-secret coal slurry and brimstone powered data center was finally decommissioned!

Poor Apple. They were not social enough to get along with the others.

All that remained of venerable IBM were the Armonk and Almaden research centers. These IBM Research folk had PhD's and such, but very different attitudes compared to their predecessors. They quickly, and sensibly, requested a non-hostile takeover by Amazon Web Services. The merged entity chose to drop the "B" from the former International Business Machines, and became AWSIM.

AWSIM soon joined with Intel and AMD. Nowadays, AWSIM provides cloud computing, toasters and nearly anything else that MS Google or GM doesn't. AWSIM also acts as exclusive contractor to the U.S. Government. Probably will continue that until we get caught up again. There isn't any need for competitive bidding, not when I've just listed the only high-tech companies still in existence!

What was that you asked me? GM? Yes, General Motors is still here. We wouldn't have buses and blimps if they weren't! I don't recall the details, but I'm certain that GM did a reverse-IPO a long time ago. It continues to be a 100% employee owned and managed company.

Well! Enough of that! I must be on my way. I still have miles and miles to go before I sleep, working my way south, home to Phoenix. The thick blue path of the Map is my ley line. It glows softly yet does not flicker. I have no fear of getting lost with that to guide me. No, no fear at all.

Instant Elements

2010-11-03T14:45:00.014-07:00

The Elements, written and performed by Tom Lehrer

Demise of Digg, Segue to Zoho

2010-10-27T05:49:00.204-07:00

I spent yesterday afternoon reading about the latest controversy swirling around rapidly-failing Digg, a pillar of the social Web 2.0. Digg.com's founder and CEO, Kevin Rose, recently chose to follow in the footsteps of Goethe's Faustus when he sold his company's soul to advertising partners.

Digg advertising partners were less accommodating than Goethe's Devil

Dr. Faustus fared better in choosing to deal directly with The Devil. Dr. Faustus was granted many years of productive accomplishment in the term sheet of his bargain! Yet Kevin Rose departed Digg a scant two months after Digg 4.0 went live in August 2010! A replacement CEO was hired, who now struggles to triage the sinking ship that is all that remains of Digg.

Frequent Sight When Digg Version 4 Went Live

During the past several weeks, Digg slashed one-third of its workforce while watching site traffic plummet by 40% as loyal users continued their mass exodus. However, yesterday's events may well be the coup de grace.

Lt General Panda, a long-time Digg user, released a series of spreadsheets, documenting the means by which Digg management, perhaps led by the new CEO, perhaps instigated by former CEO Kevin Rose, chose to alter its news-story selection algorithm. The algorithm is intended to reflect the Voice of the Digg User. Article submissions are classified by topic: current events, computing, security, gaming, technology, education, business, policy, world news, health, entertainment and humor. Digg's proprietary algorithm monitors Digg user input regarding perceived merit of submitted articles, which is then used to determine and adjust each article's relative visibility on the "front page" of the Digg site. My description is oversimplified. Digg provides more detail in the FAQ.

Signs of trouble for Digg Version 4.0 while in public beta.

Lt Gen Panda's story was quickly picked up by TechCrunch, revealing evidence suggesting that Digg tampered with its own proprietary selection engine, in order to give greater prominence to items of interest to advertisers, rather than users.

Advertisers already had a strong presence on the site, with banner ads and sponsored stories. By removing the Digg user community's freedom to select content based on merit, Digg management effectively removed all motivation to use Digg. After all, one can view as much display advertising and media news feeds as one wants simply by subscribing for free to feeds delivering stories via browser or newsreader.

Early Indicator of Troubled Times: Digg Labs URL Vanishes

The second topic of this post was suggested by the fact that Lt General Panda uses Zoho productivity applications, displaying the results of his forensic audit of Digg's traitorous behavior in a Zoho spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was included in TechCrunch story coverage and posted on Lt Gen Panda's own Tumbler blog. It was actually running as a user submitted article on the public pages of Digg, although admins have most likely removed it by now.

Segueway to Zoho

This was my motivation to investigate Zoho. I've used MS Excel, Lotus 1-2-3 or Google Docs for all my spreadsheet and office-type productivity needs and had very little awareness of Zoho prior to Lt General Panda's Digg expose.

My first question was this: Are Zoho spreadsheets compatible with Google Docs? Yes, they are, according to this Zoho blog page with an embedded spreadsheet listing all File Formats Supported by Zoho.

Next question: Why use Zoho? Well, Zoho does have quite the stable of products. This is evident from the copious assortment of Zoho Product blogs, almost as many as Google itself. Well, Microsoft has many product offerings too. So does Adobe, and probably lots of other office productivity suites. Yet Zoho is impressive nonetheless.

If evaluating a transition, first have a look at this list of languages and browsers supported by Zoho.

FeedBurner Security and Sensibility

2010-10-08T15:07:00.003-07:00

Universal Feed Symbol

Feed Security

For any blogger or creator of syndicated content who might happen to pass by The Annex, I'd like to pass on this tip about the importance of keeping your Feed Bulletin feed private.

Feed Function

Confirm that your feed is working correctly and captures the intended content, whether headlines only, headlines plus content etc.

The best way to accomplish this is with a periodic feed check-up. Once every month or every other month is usually adequate.

Two reputable sites offering secure feed validation are:

World Wide Web Consortium Feed Validation Service, a free service that checks the syntax of Atom or RSS feeds,
FeedValidator dot org, a validator for syndicated feeds. It works for RSS feeds, versions 0.90 through 2.0. It also validates Atom feeds.

To use either, simply enter the address of your feed and click Validate. Any errors are listed, with suggested remedies for repair.

Feed Sense and Faux-pas Avoidance

Problem: Why is the Posterous website overstating my subscription count? I only subscribed to ten blogs. Yet my profile indicates that I have 20 subscriptions! See image below.

Root-Cause: Carelessness by the blog owner or administrator! Note that the blogs written by journalists, who earn their living through digital publishing, have but a single entry on the list. The Laughing Squid is the only exception. He has two entries. One is a link recommendation list. The other is the actual publication. It is possible that I am at fault for selecting both rather than the blog (publication) alone.

Screen Shot of my blog subscriptions. Click on image to enlarge.

The other websites are run by experienced bloggers or website developers. They are not journalists, nor earn the majority of their income from writing. Yet they should know better than to make this mistake. But it is a very easy mistake to make, even for the savvy.

How did this happen?

This can occur if burning multiple feeds for the same blog, but forgetting to delete the old feeds. Or creating new blogs, and not tracking carefully enough which blogs have feeds already. It can be avoided by taking care to keep track of the names and resources used for one's feeds.

Glance again at the example image. Despite my fondness for Adam Rifkin's wit, I don't need four versions of his blog. Some are very puzzling e.g. who is "Trout Girl"?

The same can be said for Dustin Curtis's design and usability insights. One subscription is sufficient. This is how an unintentional spam-like duplication (or quadruplication) effect can occur, sometimes exacerbated for those who choose to subscribe by email rather than RSS feed. Such effect is one of the fastest ways of alienating readers. I have first hand experience, inflicting this (accidentally) on my own subscribers!

Note that all individuals mentioned by name are prominent in their fields of expertise. I did not disclose information, nor negatively impact professional reputations. All are well-established.

Better to learn from their mistakes. It is far more damaging for a novice to commit feed faux-pas!

URL Shorteners in Peril

2010-10-08T07:37:00.003-07:00

I haven't seen any updates on this news story of a few days ago: URL Shorteners in Peril as Libyan Government Seizes .ly Domain (Gizmodo)?

Libya actually seized only one site in the .ly domain, vib.ly, after the Libyan government's domain registrar tried to contact vib.ly three times regarding violation of terms, yet received no response.Other non-Libyan based web sites using the .ly top-level domain, most providing the same link shortening services as vib.ly e.g. bit.ly and ow.ly are unaffected for now. We breathe a collective sigh of relief.

CORRECTION

How might Google's ~~goog.ly~~ be affected by the actions of the Libyan government?

ANSWER

Not at all, because Google wisely chose not to use the Libyan TLD (top-level domain). The Google URL shortener is goo.gl. The prior reference to a goog.ly site is struck out due to my error.

It really is worth clicking on the Gizmodo story link. Enjoy the photo of The Dictator of Libya. It was unclear to me whether he was playing to the camera, or "just being himself".

Progress or Merely the Illusion of Such

2010-09-17T13:42:00.055-07:00

Are we realizing any real gains, or merely running in place?

As of 2010, we have much better internet infrastructure, but the World Wide Web has become so bloated with extraneous information and poor design that it chews it all up. ReadWriteWeb offers an insightful article on the matter of technological innovation. The mysterious "Guest Writer" describes, in quantitative terms, citing multiple data sources, that a faster internet speed hasn't translated into any real gains for end-users, particularly in page load times.

Why not? Because of the vast preponderance of excessive CRUD that is loaded on web pages: links placed as much for SEO (search engine optimization) as elucidation, videos, related stories from the past, possibly related stories in the future, content-based advertising that is oddly prescient and so forth.

ReadWriteWeb uses the Official White House website in 1996 versus the current White House site as an example. Screen shots are included, and as always, make the point most eloquently.

Please be aware, this is no thinly veiled (nor blatantly obvious) partisan commentary. The trend is not associated with political party, nor with any Presidential Administration.

"We have the ability to deliver more content in the same amount of time as 1996, but we're doing it very inefficiently. End users haven't experienced any true acceleration in [page] load times".

For more, see the full story via ReadWriteWeb: It's Not About the Network Anymore.

Sheering Time Approaches: Let's Go Hyper-local Arizona

2010-09-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Navajo sheep herders will be coming down from the hills north of The Valley of the Sun, no doubt psychologically well-prepared for all the sordid news of the city:

A broken dam due to burst bladders over at Tempe Town Lake,
The $1,000,000 price on the head of Maricopa County's Sheriff Joe by volatile Mexican drug lords, and of course,
The ever popular AZ Senate Bill 1070 a.k.a. Arizona Immigration Reform.

To commemorate sheep-shearing season, I'm presenting an extravaganza of gentle sheep-y imagery, from a variety of sources. Well, I admit, from two sources: Zazzle.com merchants, and Amazon.com. The images are so nice, I thought you might enjoy looking at them too.

(I need to find a better illustration source than advertisements, at some point. Until such time should arrive, well,.if you'd be so kind and not breathe a word of this.....).

Stick Figure Sheep and Stickers by stick_figures

Moses the Leader (Feed My Sheep)

Consider this a follow-up to this morning's earlier post about floatingsheep.org....

Our Cup Runneth Over

2010-09-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

Or "Fun with Correlations and Obesity"?

Matthew Zook explores correlations (at the state level) between the number of internet references to beer, Christianity and obesity and much more, all neatly pulled together in the floatingsheep Working Papers Collection . He released a follow-up on the obesity theme, running the same data for correlation between "obesity" and "feminist" and other meaning-laden words.

via floatingsheep.org

Although I realize that correlation does not imply causality, I always enjoy this kind of thing. Have a look at the full article: More Fun with Correlations.

Comment Pain

2010-09-17T01:33:00.003-07:00

The OpenID and OAuth protocols partly alleviate the tedium of registering and registering everywhere, over and over again. This image captures the the feeling, not terribly burdensome, yet a growing annoyance after doing it for years and years of time with the internet.

Plane Malfunction Illusion

2010-09-12T20:39:00.000-07:00

Freaky Plane Malfunction Illusion!, originally uploaded by Chris

Chris wanted to shoot out the window on a recent flight and only had his iPhone 3GS. The scanning order of the sensor combined with the refraction from the window caused the "detaching blades" phenomenon seen. Rotating the camera warped the blades in different directions. The footage was brought into After Effects and rotated to match the physical rotation of the iPhone.

The Cranky Flier by Brett Snyder on Flickr

Quite coincidentally, there have been some recent issues associated with the Q400, as reported in this late-August article in the Wall Street Journal involving an inquiry by Canadian air safety regulators. (Some of the negative sentiment associated with the Q400 was depicted in the little drawing above, involving an earlier issue with that aircraft).

Blades

Jason Mullins, on Flickr observed the same effect as Chris. His image capture is "Blades". He used an iPhone 4 rather than an iPhone 3GS, but as he explains, that isn't relevant:

Wanted to try this - flying to Guernsey [UK] and back today. It's an iPhone 4, and the scanning typically goes from top left to bottom right so moving objects lean to the left. Essentially any electronic shutter camera (i.e. not an SLR-like mechanical shutter) will give these effects. Wikipedia has some good articles.

For those who want to try this out, just point your simple electronic shutter camera at an object moving parallel to you, preferably fast, and take the photo. The faster the relative speed between you, the more the distortion. Rotating objects go really weird!"

Traffic Congestion in the Twitterverse

2010-09-12T10:49:00.078-07:00

This began with a random walk through photo-sharing site Flickr. My Twitter obsession promptly asserted itself when I caught a glimpse of an error message from the early days of Twitter Site Overload, originally uploaded by Hil. Hil pointed out a rather puzzling typo in the warning header. Perhaps it was due to feelings of agitation experienced by the @twitengineering team?

Twitter is Well-Known for Capacity Overload

Twitter Overload via Flickr

As the Twitter platform has evolved, so has the imagery associated with its well-known service outages during peak usage. The Fail Whale is an immediately recognizable indicator to Twitter users. It conveys very clearly that activity is temporarily blocked due to spikes in usage that the system cannot accommodate. This can occur during certain times of day/ week, and in response to surges of activity due to:

poorly administered contests using Twitter for entries and /or updates

Twitter Failwhale Swap,
by RobCockerham via Flickr

hacking exploits, to which Twitter is particularly vulnerable. There was a lot of this in the early days, but the novelty seems to have worn off somewhat.

There are many depictions of the eponymous Fail Whale. I'll hazard a guess that the Fail Whale represents the backlog of un-Tweeted communications, a large clog in the flow of Twitter information. Yet an answer is in sight, as the Fail Whale is located and borne aloft by an enabling flock of helpful Twitter birds, soon to be back on line again!

Twitter - New 'Over Capacity' Graphic, uploaded by Shovelling Son.

Landline Voice Calls for Google GMail Users

2010-09-02T01:08:00.016-07:00

Google is a very active place lately! The Google Voice Blog announced that users of Gmail can now make free domestic calls from from Gmail using the Google Voice ad-in. At the moment, this feature is restricted to U.S. domestic callers, however there's an added bonus. Calls can be made to landlines as well as wireless phones!

This development by Google will certainly have an impact on services such as Skype. I am eager to watch.

Is Skype a publicly held entity? If so, it would be very interesting to chart Skype's price history over the past year. Next, observe what effect, if any, there is on the daily closing price during the upcoming three to six months, now that Google Voice has become a competitor for part of Skype's market. Remember, market closing prices are indicative of trading sentiment, not company valuation. Yet that is adequate to capture the effect I'm interested in seeing.

If I'm energetic enough, I'll update this post with a few relevant charts in about three months from now. Stay tuned, we'll see what happens!

This is a chart for a different company, TIVO, from August 2009 through May, 2010. TIVO has nothing to do with Skype or Google. However, I've been waiting for an opportunity to show it as an example of what can happen due to speculation without a lot factual information. It is such an extreme image, no company, nor shareholder, would want to see something like this!

Buzz Kill

2010-08-23T14:12:00.018-07:00

Leo Laporte is a luminary of sorts, at least of the current Web 2.0 milieu. He is one of the few highly visible bloggers and pundits that actually earns a good living through his syndicated radio show, articles and podcasts. He certainly is in the top 2% of the sharing, blogging, streaming and advising social media elite.

I was aware of his sphere of influence, it would be difficult NOT to be, yet he never caught my interest. That changed a few days ago.

Leo Laporte wrote a very honest, very sensible post, full of wisdom based on a recent event in his own life:

Something happened tonight that made me question everything I’ve done with social media since I first joined Twitter in late 2006.... I sign up for every site, try every web app, use every service I can find. It’s my job, but I also love doing it. I believe in the Internet as a communication tool. I love trying the myriad new ways people are using it to connect and I believed that social media specifically had some magic new potential to bring us together. When Google announced Buzz last year I was one of the first to jump on the bandwagon.... I built a following of over 17,000 people. I was happy.

Then last night [August 22, 2010] I noticed that my Buzzes were no longer showing up. Nothing [had gone] public since August 6. Nothing. Maybe I did something wrong to my Google settings. I am completely willing to take the blame here. But I am also taking away a hugely important lesson.

No one noticed. Not even me.

It makes me feel like everything I’ve posted over the past four years... has been an immense waste of time. I was shouting into a vast echo chamber where no one could hear me because they were too busy shouting themselves. Thank God the content I deem most important, my broadcast radio shows, still stand. I'm very fortunate to have found an audience... I would have heard from people if there had been 16 days of dead silence [from my radio programs]... if we miss one show I get hundreds of emails! Social media, I gave you the best years of my life, but never again.

Excerpted from Buzz Kill.

Leo, thank you so much for your candor and humility. I can benefit from your experience, as I realize I need to focus on the things I do well, rather than chasing micro-blogging and long-tail interests. I wish you continued success. You deserve it. Less IS more. "Firehose" type activity is no substitute for author interaction.

xkcd with Love and Geohashing

2010-08-21T00:43:00.288-07:00

xkcd.com is an on-line comic (web comic) of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

Who's responsible for xkcd?

Randall Munroe has been writing xkcd for at least five years. Maybe longer.

Unfamiliar territory

He describes himself as

... just this guy, you know? I'm a CNU graduate with a degree in physics. Before starting xkcd, I worked on robots at NASA's Langley Research Center.

What do the letters x-k-c-d stand for?

Is it an abbreviation or an acronym? Mr. Munroe says:

It's not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings.

Regarding the matter of sorting algorithms, if in a quandry about which to use (because they taught you so many) Mr. Munroe observes:

This is tricky. Most of what they teach you in school is just as an example of how to think about algorithms; 99% of the time you shouldn't worry about optimizing your sorts. Just learn to implement Quicksort (which is very good) and use that without fretting about it too much.

Geo-hashing
achievement
badge

Note: If you're interviewing for a company for a position with a focus on algorithms, the above is not an excuse not to know your stuff.

xkcd also offers an interesting little game.

Let's go geo-hashing!

Geo-hashing involves meet-ups which accomplish the admirable goal of getting us away from our computers, getting out doors, exploring the great wide open. That is not the stated objective of the game, merely my editorial commentary.

It resembles geo-caching but is a bit more complex, at least up front. Overcoming the initial hurdle is a completely sedentary activity. It only requires careful study of the instructions.

I confess that I haven't tried it, but it seemed at least as pleasant as geo-caching.

The xckd wiki provides complete details, including detailed accounts of many years of past geo-hashing events. I noticed that these geo-hashing excursions were held, literally, all over the world.

The Algorithm as shown in xkcd comic #426

CC 2.0

The Algorithm captures the basics. I confess that I understood it very briefly, then not at all. But the wiki is extensive, and explains the rules quite clearly.

Randall Munroe is actually quite a talented illustrator. I scattered a selection of his geo-hashing illustrations throughout.

*All of Mr. Munroe's work is reproduced here under terms of Creative Commons License 2.0, see icon above.

Microsoft Tag at the Crossroads of Virtual and Physical Worlds

2010-08-02T15:55:00.153-07:00

Interested in winning an HP Netbook, courtesy of Microsoft?

Get yourself a Twitter microblogging account and do as described in this screen shot. It is a clickable image, and will enlarge so that the text instructions are legible. Or zip straight to the source: Microsoft Tag Twitter Tuesday Contest: Let Mobile Barcode Tagging Hyperlink Your World!. Time is of the essence, however, as the contest has been held for each of the past 8 weeks. Past winners' names are posted at the site, and merely four weeks and four netbooks remain.

Win an HP Laptop in Microsoft Tag Contest

Will Microsoft clear the field as it enters the location-based service market with its Tag product? Microsoft Tag provides this definition of the service, whose scope is even larger than I realized in my first draft of this post:

"A Tag is a high-capacity color bar code... Organizations and individuals can create specific Tags by using the Microsoft Tag Manager Web service. When the Microsoft Tag Reader application is installed on a mobile device, [it] can be used to scan a Tag using the built-in device camera. When a Tag is scanned by the Tag Reader, the information encoded into the Tag becomes available on the mobile device."

A Tag must be created and placed so that users can locate it in the physical world (not the virtual world of the interwebs) AND accurately scan the the bar codes reliably with mobile device cameras.

The purpose of this application was not at all obvious to me. I had to approach it in steps: Let's start by defining a tag as a descriptive word or phrase associated with a noun, verb or idiom. I think of these as basic "virtual tags". Examples would be the word or word expression description associated by customers with Amazon.com merchandise, as well as many online news media publications. Since my own cognitive processes are driven by analogy to basic concepts learned, well, in elementary or middle-school, I think of a tag as a super-synonym, a synonym with a promising future.

This is a mini-taxonomy of virtual and real-world tags, and their relationships:

Virtual Tags describe people, animals, objects and actions, but are applied within the virtual world of the internet.
Virtual Geo-tags are specific to physical location, and usually correspond to geo-spatial coordinates (GIS). Examples are the inverted teardrop place markers used to indicate locations in Google Maps and Mapquest. This tag is a virtual construct, despite its reference to a physical location.
Microsoft Tags are physical objects. They are associated with specific geo-spatial data, i.e. geographical locations in the real world. Using the Microsoft tag reader and a mobile phone camera, these physical Microsoft Tags can then be converted to Virtual Geo-tags.

Floatingsheep Logo

Comprehension increases after viewing the image gallery of Microsoft Tag examples created by current users, some of whom are corporate, white papers and implementation guide for web and mobile phone users, available as a free pdf download.

Microsoft is offering its Tag service free of charge, for now. They make no promises about the future though.

Microsoft Tag reminds me of floating sheep.org's mapping of the cyberscape. Floatingsheep.org is focused on mapping and analyzing

"a hybrid place: the online extension of the socially constructed human landscape in which the lines between material place and digital representations of place blur."

The interwebs are evolving at a brisk clip:

The Urban Cyberscpe of Floatingsheep.org

The artistic vision, depicted above, and originating from academia a scant seven months ago is growing into a reality.

Excel 2007 Cheat Sheet

2010-07-25T16:35:00.001-07:00

Excel 2007 Cheat Sheet
From ComputerWorld,

Microsoft Corp. made some very dramatic changes in Excel 2007. The good news is that you should welcome most of the changes, because they make it easier to get at all of Excel's power. The bad news is that you're going to have to learn how to use the application again.

What is the status for MS Excel 2010? I'm assuming something similar to 2007, complete with ribbon.

CF-18 Crash Alberta International Airshow

2010-07-24T20:00:00.085-07:00

Pilot Capt. Brian Bews ejects as his a CF-18 fighter jet plummets to the ground during a practice flight at the Lethbridge County Airport on Friday, July 23 for the weekend airshow in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

"He is alive and we believe right now that his injuries are non-life-threatening,"

Canadian Forces Capt. Nicole Meszaros told CBC News.

Witnesses Hear Odd Engine Sounds

All photos by Ian Martens / Lethbridge Herald / CP via Associated Press

Pilot Parachuting Safe and Clear of Nosediving Fighterjet

CF-18 Aircraft Escape Systems and Good Fortune: Canadian Forces Pilot Capt. Bews ejects moments prior to crash, narrowly escaping certain death from impact and fiery wreckage.

Flaming Crash at Lethbridge County Airport, Alberta, Canada

All photo images by Ian Martens, Lethbridge Herald via Associate Press

A study of helicopter accident data to determine the feasibility of a survival escape system

The not so tight turn: for a fighter pilot, speed may be life. But to escape encroaching terrain or obstacles, the Lidle crash in New York shows that it's ...: An article from: Aviation Safety

ORIGINAL PATENT APPLICATION NUMBER 1457799 FOR AN AIRCRAFT ESCAPE AND RECOVERY SYSTEM., (NORTH CAROLINA, USA).

Automatic escape systems of current USAF fighter aircraft (Aeromedical reviews)

Code for America: Every New Movement Needs Heroes

2010-07-23T00:45:00.003-07:00

Are you a developer, designer, or product manager with a desire for public service? Interested in seeing your work make a difference in a very tangible way, at the municipal government level? Ever wanted to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, receiving free training while connecting with mentors and speakers from Silicon Valley and San Francisco-based technologies communities? Sound too good to be true? You're thinking, "Who pays the bills?" and "What about housing, food, transportation expenses?" Not to worry! A cash stipend of $35,000 plus travel expenses AND healthcare benefits comes along with this 11-month opportunity to build the next generation of Gov 2.0 apps. Time is growing short, however. Code for America is accepting applications for 2011 Fellowships, but the deadline is less than a month away. All applications are due August 15th by 9:00 AM Pacific Time.

The Code for America (CfA) Fellowship program will be based out of San Francisco, starting mid-October 2010. CfA Fellows will complete an intensive training course in municipal government, while networking and receiving mentoring and other support from the most prominent people and companies in the web industry and Gov 2.0 movement. In February 2011, the Fellows will go on-site at their assigned locations, working with city officials hands-on to understand their needs and develop the project.

The five participating cities are Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Boulder and the District of Columbia. Each city identified the need for a project, and will be assigned a team of five CfA Fellows who will develop that application.

"What happens to my work afterwards? Is it open source, or will someone be making money off of my code?" After the projects are completed, all CfA projects are made freely available to any other city who can use them. Reuse and sharing of technology among cities is a core principle of CfA.

"Do I need to be a coder?" CfA is looking for developers, but they also need designers, product managers, and researchers for the Fellowship Program.

"Is this only for students?" No. While many applicants will be starting their careers, applications from anyone who's been working on the web for years and wants a chance to do something important and altruistic is encouraged to apply.

Apply now if you're interested, the sooner the better. Don't wait until August 15, in case additional information is required. Applicants selected for interviews will be contacted by September 1, and final decisions will be announced on October 1, 2010.

Check out the site for SWAG. I liked these binary art posters, and there seems to something new whenever I stop by.

Performance Improvement in Government Healthcare

2010-07-16T00:19:00.002-07:00

This Associate Director, Performance Improvement opening would be an intellectually satisfying and ethically fulfilling employment opportunity. The job is a full-time, direct hire position with Health Services Advisory Group Inc (HSAG), in Phoenix, Arizona.

My previous work in Public Health was with the Medicare-funded Office for Children with Special Health Care Needs (OCSHCN), where I was actually an employee of the State of Arizona. In addition to performance evaluation and utlization management, I enjoyed a diverse range of duties that included epidemiological studies. However, the down-side was that it was very difficult to work as a performance and quality assessor for OCSHCN' Childrens' Rehabilitative Services (CRS) managed care program while an employee of the program itself.

Why might that be so? Well, CRS's approximately 17,000 members are a very vulnerable sub-strata of the population: eligibility requirements are defined by Arizona Revised Statutes for enrollee diagnosis and age. The intent is to provide a healthcare system oriented specifically to the needs of youth and children under the age of 18 whose lives are significantly or entirely circumbscribed by the severity of their mostly congenital and often intractable medical conditions.

It was difficult and sometimes highly awkward, even emotionally upsetting to present findings that led to direct recommendations about delivery of care to this member population.

Furthermore, based on the actuarial principle of adverse selection, it was particularly difficult to make decisions on level of care when resources were limited. Should treatment of a debilitating genetic disorder, PKU (Phenylketonuria), with a wonderful new drug be authorized, given the price: approximately $40,000 per year, depending on the child's weight (actually, grams/cm by age range), and increasing to as much as $100,000 once an adult? The drug does not cure PKU, and the treatment regimen is lifelong. In addition to drug therapy, there were also cost and utilization issues pertaining to Durable Medical Equipment (DME) and prosthetics.

Regarding DME, relevant questions were:

whether to allow electric or motorized wheelchairs?
how often should wheelchairs be replaced? Different standards must be applied to children than adults, as handicapped children grow just like other children, even if not always at the same rate.
discontinue coverage of cochlear implants in order that many other services may continue? A pair of cochlear implants cost approximately $50,000 all-inclusive. Those same funds spent on one child could be used instead for a dozen or more cleft lip or cleft palate surgeries, with funds remaining for a few club foot corrective surgeries too.

When resources are scarce, decisions are difficult. Fortunately in the cochlear implants issue, a compromise was reached, which allowed for a single cochlear implant while the child was under CRS program care, along with audio therapy and support, with the second cochlear implant covered by AHCCCS, the state provider of Medicaid/ Medicare services once the child was 16 or 18 years of age, depending on the patient's level of satisfaction and interest in receiving the second implant.

Contrary to popular belief due to the furor regarding Arizona State Bill 1070, also known as the "AZ State Immigration Law" and mentioned here in a prior post, the State of Arizona is remarkably progressive in certain areas. I've just described an instance of such: Arizona is one of only three states in the Union offering services to Children with Special Health Care Needs. By assembling health care providers attuned specifically to this segment of the population, these children receive much better care than they would through many private managed care programs.

In fact, there are a significant number of additional CRS enrollees who are not Medicare-eligible. Approximately 2,000 children, in addition to the 17,000 count cited above, are covered by private insurance as payor for services. These children could be enrolled with any provider or managed-care program covered by their insurance, yet CRS is considered the best choice. Of course, CRS is an accredited provider for many major commercial insurance carriers, and cost for services is adjusted accordingly.

I miss my work in Public Health, and would welcome the opportunity to analyze performance and quality of services from outside the program providing services, as well as the opportunity to focus on enrollee pools with a more diverse disease prevalence profile.

Succor for Soles and Souls

2010-07-12T23:36:00.001-07:00

For my Phoenix area reader segment, have a gander at this shoemaker review from New Times publisher's online Transplants To Phoenix Examiner columnist Susan Rienzo,"A Shoe Repair Shop That Restores Soles AND Souls".

In many of the traditional old neighborhoods that a lot of transplants escaped from, there was a shoe repair shop. In my former hometown, it was run by an Italian guy with a strong accent and a stronger attitude. He always took Wednesdays off. When my best friend and I were in high school, we used to joke that he did so in order to play golf with all the doctors. God, we were brats! Anyway, in this throw-away culture, shoe fixers in the Valley are few and far between. Someone who takes pride in their work and does things the old-fashioned way is even harder to find.

But when the strap on one of your cutest, most favorite sandals breaks (and you know it will), fear no more... Affluent Scottsdale Shoe and Luggage Repair at 10855 North Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard (Suite 108), just north of Shea, provides quality work and so much more. The shoemaker, Rick, is a man who will practically rebuild a beloved purse, or pocketbook as they say in New Jersey, that another "fixed" in a slipshod way. (The only reason 'purse repair' isn't also in the shop's name is that it would be too long to fit on a sign.)

I had a recommendation of my own, which I'll reproduce here, from the comments section of the Examiner post:

So nice to read about a shoemaker and handbag repair store! Okay, I self-edited because I say "pocketbook" instead of handbag too!

I was raised in Arizona and New Mexico. After some years in California, I finally moved to New York City. I became accustomed to the convenience and savings from the shoemaker's shop two blocks from my tiny apartment in Gramercy Park.

Resoling shoes, restitching a fancy leather belt or pocketbook that was perfect otherwise, replacing raw hide laces, or adjusting woven leather sandals straps that would've cost $75 to repace, but merely $10 to repair like new): shoemakers do that and much more. I purchased rubber galoshes with ankle snaps to wear over my shoes for the winter, so that gray icy slush wouldn't pour over the tops of my work heels.

Overly tight shoes could be stretched and become comfortable again. Tiny holes in supple fur-lined leather gloves would be stitched while I waited. I even chose to have a cocoa brown suede skirt purchased from Saks Fith Avenue, and far too long for me, but with elaborate scalloped hemline, hemmed by my shoemaker! Most seamstresses were not eager to alter suede. Amazingly, my shoemaker, on the southwest corner of Third Avenue and East 23rd Street in Manhattan, even re-cut the scalloping in the hem!

In these days of "sustainabile technology", the shoemaker's services are what we need. Thank you so much for your article. And your readers comments too! I'm not the only one, there ARE others who remember!

For Central Phoenix residents far from Scottsdale, here's a suggestion: Try Colonnade Shoe Shop & Repair, on 1925 E. Camelback Rd, Ste D136 adjacent to Fry's Grocery on E. Highland and 20th St in Phoenix. I'm just getting to know them, but "so far so good"! Phone number is (602) 212-0784. A bonus feature which I appreciate is that they are open Sunday through Friday, 9:30am through 5:30pm, closed on Saturday. It is so very convenient to find a small business with hours on Sunday!

For additional corroboration, you may want to check out the recent reviews for Colonnade Shoe Shop posted on Yelp.

Post title courtesy of the Dept of Questionable Puns.

Code for America in Binary

2010-07-11T19:07:00.051-07:00

I've missed the boat for July 4th, but I felt like passing this around anyway. The Gov 2.0 organization Code for America has released a binary style image for each of the eight American Patriots who were recognized for Independence Day 2010.

The images are available as Adobe Acrobat *.pdf downloads on the Rock the red, white, and blue. In binary section of the Code for America site.

The Personal World Clock

2010-07-05T20:00:00.011-07:00

Need to know the time, exactly? The display on one's wireless telephone is usually sufficiently close to an atomic clock for most purposes. However, if you want a world clock with cities and/or times zones customized specifically for you, then it would be worth having a look at Time and Date dot com, the most frequently used time-and-date site on the internet, according to Alexa, the web analytics company.

The site has numerous offerings, two mainstays are Time and Date's configurable World Clock as well as a variety of traditional, clever modern and even historical calendars.

The company is privately-held and based in Norway. The site also offers links to something called Znake, "the Java game", with which I had no ability whatsoever!

The Personal World Clock is available in Java applet form and with a standard customization tool, as a free or fee-based service depending on usage requirements.

There are strict usage restrictions, which I adhered to in producing one version of their date and time clock. Have a look at the site and maybe you'll find something interesting for yourself.

Data Mining Concepts

2010-06-29T14:51:00.002-07:00

This slide show was a good review of Data Mining. Unlike most overviews, it contained specific discussions using RDBM table schema diagrams, data relationships and illustrative examples and applications.

Data Mining Concepts

View more presentations from huongcokho.

Credibility and the Internet

2010-06-22T00:22:00.086-07:00

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

This was old news about queues back in 1985. Yet it was written up as a journal article, and received coverage as though a new finding in the June 2010 issue of ScienceDaily, an online publication owned by Reuters.

M/M/1 queueing and balking rate models are certainly useful. However, the concepts, and their accuracy as models, were well-established for at least thirty years. This is true whether applying queueing theory to modelling the performance of computer hard-drives e.g. random reads, or to consumer behavior when switching lanes because of long lines at the supermarket checkout.

The Wiley text book, Fundamentals of Queueing Theory depicted here, was published in 1998. Earlier editions were published in 1983, and explain in detail the theory and application of the concepts presented in the journal article reviewed by ScienceDaily.

Journal Reference

Liao et al. "Optimal staffing policy for queuing systems with cyclic demands." International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2010; 7: 317-332.

Advanced JavaScript

2010-06-14T18:25:00.005-07:00

Advanced JavaScript

View more presentations from Fu Cheng.

Open Data Standards

2010-05-28T09:20:00.006-07:00

My response to Rhiza Labs CEO Josh Knauer: On open government data, Tim Berners-Lee is almost right

I just watched the Gov 2.0 Expo video (May 27, 2010 in London, UK) featuring Tim Berners-Lee advocating government data standards, and your response [Rhiza Labs' Mr. Josh Knauer, see link to site above] that followed. I am a working practitioner of data standardization and transparency in data policy, and wanted to express my agreement with your commentary.

Mr. Tim Berners-Lee is a dynamic speaker. As the founder of Hyper-text Markup Language and plausibly the entire World Wide Web, he justifiably has the respect of all. However, his premise that linking to URL’s as the most effective mean of building a framework for data naming consistency reduces to glibness.

I worked as a Data Governance manager for two managed care programs, one federal, the other Medicare-funded at the state level. You are correct: uniform identifiers are the solution, and UUID’s (universal uniform identifiers, that are not language-specific) would be best. In the context of my healthcare related work, I would add the following data classifications used by CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dept of Health and Human Services) to the other United States government-related data standards you cited:

HCPCS, ICD-9 and CPT (maintained by Ingenix) for medical coding
National Drug Codes (from the FDA) for pharmaceuticals
the taxonomy of 11-byte alphanumeric codes for medical specialties

Note that the medical and pharmaceutical codes are usable with OR without electronic health records, which isn't possible with Tim Berners-Lee's advocacy of URL based standards. Remember that not everything is electronic or internet linked. Not yet.

URL’s are not robust. Links often break in 10 years, let alone 1000 years, and are far too vulnerable.

Tim Berner-Lee’s appeal for standardization, and ability to hold the attention of an audience that is never excited about data policy is certainly helpful. (Who is excited about the subject, other than those who do it, and those who suffer from the lack of it?) I hope that the spirit of his message is what is acted upon, rather than being used as a starting point for implementation.

A little more about PageRank

2010-05-26T07:15:00.001-07:00

This page is intended as an overview only, briefly describing Google Toolbar features. A few quick facts about toolbar item PageRank:
- PageRank values are between 1 and 10.
- The little white slab on the tool bar is more green and less white as the ranking gets closer to 10, highest importance ranking.
- Any page not indexed by Google web analytics is not ranked. Note that this page with the topic "PageRank" is not ranked! Some Google Help pages are PageRanked, others are not.

in reference to: PageRank : Master advanced features - Toolbar Help (view on Google Sidewiki)

Facebook, Google and Privacy [CARTOON]

2010-05-18T00:45:00.055-07:00

Behold this bit of social media satire

Google. Facebook. Haters

Courtesy of Internet Tubes by TypePad developer Nima Badiey.

This image would be perfect for inclusion in any article concerning the unauthorized access by Facebook to users' personal data.

Oddly enough, the purple-hued Google entity peering in through the hole in the wall looks a bit like Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. But how can that be? Facebook is already represented by the other internet demon in the image!

Similarly, these charming cufflinks might also reflect recent Facebook user attitudes regarding the true status of their formerly-presumed private or personally identifying information. The cufflinks are available at Amazon.com.

Have a gander at these eyebrow-raising product offering inspired by Facebook, courtesy of the fine folks at Amazon.com.

Keep in mind that this is a small sampling of topics covered. There is far more available. Admittedly, I chose the most sensational-sounding of the bunch.

How to fix your iPod Shuffle

2010-05-14T09:00:00.002-07:00

This is possibly the funniest capture of poor product design I've ever read. The product happens to be one of my own personal favorites, Apple's iPod Shuffle MP3 player, 2nd generation.

I actually own two Shuffles, and can verify the sad but true information in the Beyond Tecknology article, as I've experienced many of the same problems he and his readers describe.

Beyond Tecknology: How to fix your iPod Shuffle

Arizona Immigration Law

2010-05-07T12:02:00.006-07:00

The Zipper Wire offers some much needed factual evidence and validation today, via Boortz. As you can see in the sidebar here, Ellie's Annex is located in Arizona. I am part of the majority of the people of the State of Arizona in favor of our recently passed immigration law.

I am also a Jewish woman, and know the difference between the Nazi modus operandi of World War II versus the intent of Arizona Senate Bill 1070. Apparently, the current owner of the Phoenix Suns is not familiar with either, based on his recent comments likening one to the other. This was profoundly troubling to me.

However, earlier today, I was pleased to read this succinct description from Boortz, courtesy of WZ about our immigration law SB 1070:

...[SB 1070], according to constitutional lawyers, mimics federal immigration. All it does is give local authorities the same enforcement ability afforded to federal law enforcement.

Also,

Did you know that every non-citizen in the US has been required to carry 'proof of status' documents since Congress passed the Alien Registration Act in 1940?

And finally,

... an Arizona State University constitutional law professor who helped to draft this Arizona bill states that law enforcement officers "may not consider race, color or national origin" in making any stops or determining any aliens' immigration status. That is in the bill...

I acknoweldge that it would be difficult for police to avoid using appearance as the basis for probable cause in initiating an immigration document request.

Why has there been such a backlash in the national media regarding this Arizona law? Perhaps it is because residents of other states do not have personal exposure to the impact of illegal immigration on their economy in a myriad of ways. Our current governor is Republican, but there was much support amongst non-Republican registered residents as well. In fact, approximately 70% were in favor of this law, and felt it would benefit the people of the State of Arizona. Furthermore, based on the information above, AZ SB 1070 is merely a state-level mirror of already existing federal law, which is applicable in most instance, nationwide.
http://weaselzippers.us/2010/05/07/boortz-obamamedia-distorts-arizona/#comments, Weasel Zippers » Blog Archive » Boortz

Google Guide Tutorial

2010-05-07T05:01:00.002-07:00

For a good interactive Google tutorial, see http://www.googleguide.com/. Google Guide is neither owned nor affiliated with Google. The tutorial is offered in English, German, Danish and Hebrew, and is also available as a free pdf download.

Interactive online Google tutorial and references - Google Guide

Microwave Cooking For One

2010-05-06T22:20:00.010-07:00

Here's a follow-up to sfweekly.com's SFoodie story feature "Microwave Cooking for One". In early April, 2010 Pic of the Day - San Francisco Restaurants and Dining, SFoodie wrote

Let's make one thing clear: there's nothing wrong with eating alone. We do it all the time, not just out of necessity but because sometimes it's nice to enjoy a meal in solitude. As for microwave cooking, well, sometimes you're in a hurry...

But we wouldn't go so far as Marie T. Smith and cook what might be steak in a microwave. And while we're sure Marie is probably actually a very happy lady, we're going to have to blame the photographer for producing such a pained portrait. Is there someone standing off to the side with a gun, demanding that Marie hover over that microwave produced buffet of pastel-colored food?

SFoodie's caption for this image seemed apt, "The Saddest Cookbook Ever: Microwaving For One".

It was even more poignant when Marie T. Smith's daughter, Theresa, responded half-way throught the 47-count reader comment thread, describing her mother at the time of the book's publication in 1984. Marie Smith knew how it could be living alone, and felt that a single, divorced or widowed person deserved to eat as well as someone with a family. She had noticed the increasing numbers of single-person households in the early 1980's, according to her daughter. Marie addressed these concerns by offering free cooking classes for women who were trying to acclimate to such changes. Some were recent widows, others were homemakers entering the workforce after divorce, others were transitioning out of shelters to life on their own. Marie held many such cooking classes in her own home, and free-of-charge.

Marie T. Smith passed away in 1987. However, her daughter thanked the
publishers of SFoodie, and the commenters too, for the publicity. Apparently "Microwave Cooking for One" cookbook remains in print, generating revenue 24 years later! Sales picked up after the SFoodie article, said Theresa.

There are some amazing YouTube.com videos of Marie demonstrating how to cook a sunny-side up egg, cheeseburgers and more, in a microwave oven. microwavecooking on YouTube has four videos. All are segments from a Lakeland, FL network-news affiliate, most were on-air in 1986,

After my disasterous video embedding attempt of at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) video, topic was Social Network Dataflows, I'm a bit gunshy about posting them. My apologies for that: I have no idea why the audio volume was up at 100%, nor why a PARC research presentation had an all-musical soundtrack....?

Instead, I recommend a visit to YouTube, to the microwavecooking channel, where many microwave cooking demo's featuring Marie T. Smith are still available.
See sfweekly for entire twitter thread.

Capturing the Zeitgeist

2010-05-02T15:26:00.012-07:00

The Social Collider arrived. I haven't heard any updates, about one year after it was introduced.

Social Collider is a Google Chrome-backed experimental application. It's functional design objective is to reveal cross-connections between conversations on the Twitter platform. The actual intent of the Social Collider experiment is quite a bit more interesting. As data is collected and accrues, the application's designers hope to uncover multiple layers of person-place-location-event relationships which can be fully comprehended best only when viewed with the additional perspective of chronology.

This is an excerpt of the About page from the site:

One can search for usernames or topics, which are tracked through time and visualized much like the way a particle collider draws pictures of subatomic matter. Posts that didn't resonate with anyone just connect to the next item in the stream. The ones that did, however, spin off and horizontally link to users or topics who relate to them, either directly or in terms of their content.

The Social Collider acts as a metaphorical instrument which can be used to make visible how memes get created and how they propagate. Ideally, it might catch the Zeitgeist at work.

Output is on display in a London museum, although primarily as a work of art. I was curious if I could find the Zeitgeist at work, so I tried entering a query with search term "facebook", selecting the past for time interval. Probably unwise for an online application: Windows 7 abended and I was forced to reboot my PC.

Blog Index

2010-05-02T04:15:00.006-07:00

Paraphrased from April 2008 post on Blogger for Dummies: Is my blog indexed, and if not, how to get it indexed quickly?

It takes time for a site to be indexed by a search engine.. How do you determine if your blog have been indexed? If it appears in the result pages after you do the following Google search, then yes, your blog has been indexed.
site:yourblog URL
The most effective way to get your site indexed by a search engine is to get an inbound link from a site which has already been indexed and is crawled regularly. Don't forget to add a Google sitemap and submit your blog to directories.

Type "blog directory" into Google search to find directories. It is advisable to prepare a "directory submission" file with all the information normally required by the directories such as URL, description, and tags in a Notepad file and save it offline to avoid retyping for each directory. Tags are also called keywords, or labels in Blogger.

Note: Is this still correct?The most important and hardest to get listed is DMOZ (Open Directory Project) now also called Google Directory because DMOZ has been bought by Google.

For submission to DMOZ, choosing the right category is very important. It takes a long time to get listed in DMOZ, and your blog may not even be listed if it is found unsuitable. Google Directory is based on DMOZ. If your site is listed in DMOZ, you immediately get 2 inbound links from 2 high PageRank and authority sites. Plus other search engines uses DMOZ as a reference, and if your blog is listed there, it will definitely be searchable by other search engines.

Reference http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/2007/04/is-my-blog-indexed-and-if-not-how-to.html

Blue Box - The Free Information Society

2010-04-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

Blue Box - The Free Information Society Any idea what this is? Circuit diagram (schematic) says Copyright 2001, Whirlwind Software, lower right-hand corner and in the middle right is "2-chip Blue Box" and www.artofhacking.com . Size is 25.354kB pdf file, says "for experimental purposes only, not to be used for toll evasion"!!!