NorthStarNerd.Org

The New Media vs The Old Media (and in between)

People often like to talk about old vs new media. What are the ramifications?  Are the news stories the same? While I don't pretend to have the answers, I did decide to use a "new age" web tool named Wordl, which takes the content from any web page (or text you submit) and builds a graphical representation. In other words (or in other Wordls), this service turns text into a graphical representation.

Thus, I bring you the news as reported on March 29, 2010 at 6:45 CDT from:

• The NY Times (the old)
• CNN (the in between)
• Google News (the new)

In the case of each media site, I used their "vanilla" United States root page (i.e. no user preferences). I thought it would be intriguing to compare a news service / web site which is built upon an old line newspaper (NY Times), a web based new age media site (CNN), and finally a computer service built news service (Google News). The only comment I'll make is that CNN and the NY Times seem to present less content and stress some items more on their home pages (number and size of graphics). I'll let you draw any other conclusions yourself. Thus, here are the three Wordls: (click upon any image to view full sized)

NY Times

 

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CNN

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Google News

Research ... Not Just Another Twitter List!

Although I've been a HUGE advocate of RSS technology over the years via this blog (still am), I realize that Twitter is here to stay. Like many of you, I've experimented with Twitter and am still learning the value proposition. I have found that one Twitter List which I have created, my Research List, has been a great way for me to stay informed about new reports in the knowledge domain of collaboration, systems and technology. I've restricted the membership to high quality research groups. I've included the initial list below along with their Twitter account links. Any like groups I should add, and why?  Thanks. 

NorthstarNerd Twitter Research Group:

• APQC (American Productivity & Quality Center)
• Burton Group I.T.
• EcolLab
• Forrester Research
• Gartner Research
• IBM Alpha Works
• MIT Sloan Management Review
• Microsoft Office Labs
• Pew Research

Google Fiber Duluth Search Engine

My home town of Duluth, Minnesota is trying to win the competition to have Google install a high speed fiber network for the entire community. You may learn more about our effort via Google Twin Ports. If you happen to be a Google employee who is evaluating Duluth's application, I've created a Google Custom Search Engine which provides you a nice extract of what makes the Northland great. While you could use Google local search, even using that delimiter you would be presented with 304,000 results (a very high number with lots of "noise").

• Google Fiber Duluth Search Engine
  (custom search engine)

The web content classifications for the search engine index are:

• Arts
• Civic
• Education
• Government
• Leisure
• Media

If desired, link to the search engine index to view the site list. You may browse from the index directly to any web site listed.

• Index Last Updated: March 22, 2010 (39 sites)
• Submit a site for inclusion

LinkedIn Direct Ads .. A Threat to Google?

Earlier this week upon logging in to my LinkedIn account, I noticed their Direct Ads. While I normally don't get excited about advertising, for some reason, I was curious. I decided to explore the service and ended up creating a short tutorial. The logical question is ... Why am I so intrigued with LinkedIn's direct advertisement service?

Consider, what if you had the ability to dramatically focus your ad campaigns by key demographics, and only pay for actual "click throughs"? In addition, using the power of social networking your target populations could learn about you, the advertiser, as a person. That message is powerful, and new. Google Adword campaigns can not deliver this kind of interaction. Thus, could a strong LinkedIn be dangerous for Google's primary revenue base? Take a few minutes and watch my latest Northstar Nerd Tutorial, and you be the judge. I've included one screenshot below from my tutorial:

• Northstar Nerd LinkedIn Direct Ad Tutorial

Biathlon

As many of you know, I raced in my first Biathlon recently, and even placed first in the masters novice division. The sport impressed me with its demands for conditioning (skiing) and precision (shooting); however I'm not sure I'm ready for competition at the international level. This battle between the skiers from France, Russia, France and Germany for the top three places is truly amazing (video is only 46 seconds long).

Poor User Interface Design

This past Saturday night, my part of the world switched back to daylight savings time. This twice annual changing of the clocks always reminds me of how much poor user interface design we all put up with in so many products, and particularly anything with a small LCD screen ... and in this case, clocks (or anything with a clock).  Over the next week I will slowly but surely move through the house with a sense of dread. After 25 years in the same house, it's amazing the number of clocks which need to be reset.

When I was younger the process of resetting clocks was easy. Find the knob, and turn until the minute and hours hands show the correct time. Today, I fear my approach to every device. The users manuals have long since disappeared. So here is my scenario:

• Approach device with trepidation.
• Does the device have one or two switches to set the time?
• Are the switches labeled?
• Start pressing and hope something on the display makes sense.

Now just in case you think this guy is dumb (i.e. me). I've worked at a corporate R&D center for the last 25 years. I'm considered a senior technologist. This stuff should not scare me!

Thus, I issue my challenge. What clock do you fear on this twice annual time change!? I've included a photo below of one clock I did NOT have to change. Why? Last Fall, I gave up and left the clock on daylight savings time. As of Sunday, this clock is now correct again! It's part of a bookshelf stereo system by Boston Acoustic which has great sound, but the clock ...

Click upon the image to view full sized

Amity Creek Waterfall

Only one week ago Molly and I were cross-country skiing (Biathlon!). Enjoy a few moments and watch all the Winter's snow as it races through the "Deeps" waterfall in Amity Creek's mad rush down to Lake Superior. Apparently this Spring's snow melt is the fastest in over 120 years. I went bicycling yesterday in shorts and a t-shirt. Hard to fathom when it's mid March in northern Minnesota!

Amity Creek Waterfall from Rich Hoeg on Vimeo.

Top Engineers on Twitter

Engineering Mash-ups. These two words define a process which combine two web resources to create a new service where the sum of the parts exceeds the original content. Hopefully you will find my new custom Google search engine an example of that truism.  Here is how I came to create my new search engine which indexes the top 96 engineers on Twitter:

1. Betty from "Top Online Engineering Degree" contacts me with her new compiled list of the "Top 100 Engineers On Twitter". After review, I decide ... wow ... this compilation is valuable.
   .
2. Upon further review, I decide I do not want to "follow" 100 new individuals. Thus, a new Google Custom Search Engine engine is born where the index starting point is Betty's list. If you have individuals or organizations which you believe should be added, please contact me.

Time out ... you may have noticed, I only indexed 96 sites, not 100. There is a simple answer. Four of the top 100 sites are locked Tweets; thus the content would not appear in search engine results. Thus, here is the search engine, and immediately below the list categories and a sample entry.

Format: Category List - Sample Entry (full list)

• Engineering Schools - Stanford Engineering
• Engineering Support - Tektronix
• Engineering News - IEEE Spectrum
• Engineering Associations - The IET (from the United Kingdom)
• Individual Contributors - Chris Gammell (the Analog Life guy!)
• Student Engineers - rsparam (from India)
• Science and Engineering Feeds - Wired Science

The image is from TopOnlineEngineeringDegree.Com

Minnesota Biathlon

Molly and I had a great time today skiing as novices in the Minnesota Biathlon. In fact, I did not realize Molly had never fired a gun in her life ... what a first for my dear wife and on Nordic Skis! We both actually hit 9 of 10 targets in the longer 7 km cross-country ski race, and thus avoided taking all but one penalty lap. The folks from the Minnesota Biathlon Organization are to be commended for running a great event. Of course, blue skies and temperatures of 45F did not hurt either (results)! Last week's Birkie seems so long in the past.

I hope you enjoy my photos and video of both the experienced race, and the novice race in which Molly and I competed:

• Novice Skier Biathlon Race: Ski Cam Man (head cam photos)
• Experienced Skier Biathlon Race (regular camera photos)
  and
• A Musical Mashup of the Day's Races (slideshow)

Finally, a few photos from Olympian Garrott Kuzzy .

Please also visit my MinnSki (Nordic Skiing in Minnesota Web Portal) where you'll find more head cam photos, a custom built search engine which focuses upon Nordic Skiing in the Northland, and Garmin calculated trail difficulty measurements / ratings. For example, view my Garmin data from this race.

If you prefer, the video embedded below may also be watched on YouTube, but I think this version loads quicker and is of equal quality. It was a fun day!

Minnesota Biathlon from Rich Hoeg on Vimeo.

Google Local Search

How many of you really know how to use Google Search? If you're using basic Google, and not some of the neat options you're missing the boat, or in this case the search. Google has recently added a "local search option" which allows one to focus a keyword search on a given geographic area.

You might ask ... who cares, or why need I focus upon a given geographic area. Take a look at the two screenshots given below (click to view full sized). In my example, I've focused upon Silicon Valley, and you can see the quality of my result for the keyword "mems".

Realizing that not everyone might be interested in engineering design examples, consider for the moment if you were looking for cross-country ski trails. One could focus the search upon Duluth, Minnesota and find nice trails along the north shore of Lake Superior. You get the idea!

You may also wish to review Google's official announcement of this feature.

Step #1: Accessing the Google Local Search Options: (click to view full sized)

Step #2: Creating a Google Local Search: (click to view full sized)