NorthStarNerd.Org

The Road Less Travelled

Hopefully if you've read NorthstarNerd posts for more than a few months, you understand that I like to take the "road less travelled". After all, it is only by branching out from the normal and common in life that one learns. This is true when it comes to web research and development, but it is also true in terms of ones physical movement from point A to point B in the physical realm.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I needed to help my youngest son who was starting an engineering internship get established in a new apartment. This required my wife and I to drive 300 miles to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Our trip down to Oshkosh was uneventful. However, I decided to try a new route home via US Highway #10. I knew this meant less miles on Interstate #94, and more time spent driving a two lane highway through rural central Wisconsin. Here was my reward ...

While most people were fighting the Memorial Day traffic on the high speed interstate highways, it was unusual when I saw more than one car in my line of sight. Most of the time, it was just our car and the surrounding farmland and forest. Every 15 to 20 miles we did have to slow down and drive through small town America ... and then ... staring us in the face we saw it! The Wisconsin Pavilion from the 1964 New York World's Fair. Yes, this architectural wonder had somehow worked its way after the fair closed in 1965 back to rural Wisconsin. I had found the Big Cheese!

Seriously, US #10 was beautiful and held unexpected rewards ... from the Pavilion to beautiful farms. Do you ever take the road less travelled?

In closing here is some data about the 1964 New York World's Fair Wisconsin Pavilion (click upon the image to view full sized):

• An Overview of the Wisconsin Pavilion
• The 1964 New York World's Fair (Wikipedia)

Musical Photo Montages

Wow ... my musical photo montages just hit 60,000 views. My subjects range from Tall Sailing Ships to Arctic Dogsled Trips to the Old Testament. Take a look!

The Apple Store Experience

I don't love Apple Computers. For years I've used my windows based system both for the control it gives me, and the business compatibility. Late last year, it became obvious that I needed to understand the mobile experience. Thus, I now have a HTC droid phone, and an Apple iPad 1.

With two business trips in May which involve significant presentations, I decided I needed to get my iPad working with projectors (learn more ... prior post). Although I could do the Apps research on my iPad, last Friday, I ultimately needed to drive over to the Apple store at a suburban Minneapolis mall. Taking an early lunchbreak I made the trip ... expecting a deserted mall ... after all it was 11:00 a.m. on a weekday. Everyone should be at work. Wrong!

While the mall itself was deserted, the Apple store was packed ... wall to wall people. I had stumbled on a love fest of retirees, housewives, and a few business people like myself. Within seconds three different Apple employees approached me and offered to assist me. I explained to all my need for a VGA out cable. I was given direction to the rear of the store, next to the "Genius Bar"?

I easily found my cable, but then I was confused ... not a cash register in site. Within seconds a fourth Apple employee approached and explained ... electronic checkout via his handheld device. Wow. I was impressed. He politely asked if Apple could email me my receipt (why not ... gave him my SPAM account). However, I was impressed ... point of sale connection between customer, purchase, and email account.

While I still prefer the control my windows computer gives me, I am a convert when it comes to the Apple Store shopping experience. These folks know the customer! In addition, my middle son while home briefly from his graduate studies noted to me ... Dad ... you're not on your laptop that much anymore. You seem to really like that iPad!

Now if I could just get Flash, and a more seamless Google & Microsoft experience on my iPad. I'm still watching the Android tablets, but nothing impresses me yet.

If you desire, read about some of my Android Land experiences.

Post update on August 3, 2011: I've actually created an iPad Business Apps Manual

 

The Power of Web 2.0

People say blogging is dead, well I say phooey! Last night I passed 320,000 total page views for NorthstarNerd.Org. Over the years I have posted 1,059 times for an average read per page of 302 views. I would say that's not bad for a nerd from northern Minnesota!

Seriously, while everyone else tweats in small bursts of limited value, give some thought to the traditional blog. If you invest the time, the payback is HUGE. Via NorthstarNerd.Org I have met some amazing people, and learned valuable knowledge ... both via the effort of posting and the community which interacts with me.

For this 1,060th post I would like to add some value beyond just an opinion. As stated previously, one solid advantage of this blog is the ability to keep learning. One resource which I've found recently particularily useful is MakeUseOf.Com. This site constantly provides updates with usefil tips about optimizing your use of technology. In addition, they have a great page of End User Guides (downloadable free pdf's) which range from digitial photography to LINUX. I've directly linked their iPad guide (28 pages) on my site as an example (screenshot of cover given below).

Will you be my 320,001st viewer? Stop by NorthstarNerd.Org and leave me a comment! What do you like about this domain? What could I do better? Thanks for your visit!

 

Do you think?

I spent my Saturday at minnebar along with 1,200 other techies. While most of the concepts and technologies reviewed were not in my area of expertise, they all made me think. It is all too uncommon an occurance when we take the time to actually really sit back and reflect ... to think.

One of my faorite sites over the years to get quick doses (or long) thinking inspiration is Stanford's eCorner. Thought leaders from Silicon Valley present (free video or audio) on their ideas.

Here is one of the leading venture capitalists, Geoffrey Moore. You can watch 1 minute and 47 seconds on "When Big Companies Get Stuck" (follow link for excerpt ... full presentation is given below)