NorthStarNerd.Org

Backpacking Through Europe

Ah ... the good old days ... back in the Fall of 1976. I took a term off from Dartmouth, and backpacked through Europe. Now my son Carl will do the same ... he leaves tonight. However, Carl will blog about the subject.  My parents we're lucky to hear anything from me. The only way to contact me was to mail a letter to an American Express office in the hopes I might travel through that locale. Carl will have Skype, his blog, etc.

Thus, follow a college student's experiences as he backpacks through Europe via Carl's Travel Blog (or subscribe via RSS). I posted this comment on my son's blog:

"Back in 1976, during my own backpacking trip through Europe, my experiences ranged from hiking up to the edge of an active volcano (Mt. Etna in Sicily) to serving as a guest DJ for an underground communist radio station. Thankfully I'm still alive, and did not ever get arrested! Have fun ... Dad"

Data Visualization Tutorial: IBM Many Eyes

Late last week I posted that I was intrigued with a new IBM social networking application, Many Eyes. The field of data visualization is interesting, and the idea that one may share and visualize data sets via a social network appealed to me ... so I created a tutorial. Now you may share my curiosity, and visualizations (or create your own).

• Northstar Nerd Tutorial: Data Visualization via IBM's Many Eyes
  • Tutorial Examples: DataSet | Visualization | Create Your Own
    (graduate engineering student enrollment trends)

... and more Many Eyes Links:

• IBM "Many Eyes" Tool - IBM AlphaWorks Web 2.0 visualization web site
• Many Eyes Innovation Podcast - Science and Technology Podcasts

Link back to my earlier post for engineering data visualization lecture links from Duke.

(Update on Oct. 27, 2008 ... See Microsoft's new visualization tool, DataDepot)

Engineering Data Visualization

Last Summer Second Life was all the rage in the popular media. In fact, one of the most linked (and found) pages on this blog are the Second Life Tutorials (more SL posts). However, as much as SL gathered media attention, the bigger interest for most of us was the discipline of engineering simulation and data visualization. While conducting some research recently, I became aware of an excellent visualization seminar series from Duke University. Like most research ... one link led to another ... which led to another, etc. Thus, here are the fruits of my labor with brief descriptions as to why each link is worth a click:

• Duke University Friday Forum - visualization engineering seminar series
  (and)
• IBM "Many Eyes" Tool - IBM AlphaWorks Web 2.0 visualization web site
• Georgia Tech Visualization Tutorials - learn by doing!
• Many Eyes Innovation Podcast - Science and Technology Podcasts
• Visualization Wikipedia Article

The Duke University Forum, and many of the other links have been added to the Engineering Learning Wiki. Please see these updated wiki sections:

• Software Engineering Learning
• Blogs and Pods

Update on June 23, 2008: I've now created my own Many Eyes Tutorial

Update on Oct. 27, 2008 ... See Microsoft's new visualization tool, DataDepot

   

26.2 executable ... being compiled

One week from tomorrow I will run in Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota. I just designed and bought myself a new T-shirt for the race. If you don't get it (see images), you probably shouldn't be reading this blog! (click for an expanded view)

 

Blast to the Past #6: Social Networks for Your Dog

In my second blast to the past, I revisit one of my favorite social networking posts which is indicative of the explosive growth of social networks. I have personally worked on some neat social networking projects (Web 2.0 posts), but last Fall I was amazed to learn via the MIT Technology Review that dogs had joined the revolution. Here is an excerpt from that post:

Dog Tags for Virtual Sniffing: Believe it or not, dogs wearing a tag from Snif Labs, exchange ID codes when they meet.  When their owners get home, they can then download the data and learn information about the dogs, and the owner! View a Snif Labs Animated Demo.

Spot (my dog - already a techie) ... meet Rover! In addition, in the spirit of this post, anyone who emails me a digital photo of their dog, I will post that photo here!