NorthStarNerd.Org

Northwoods Tripod!

My wife gave me a Gorillapod Hybrid for Christmas... a neat and flexible tripod. Today, after consuming a 3 pieces of Julekake and much more for brunch, I decided a cross-country ski was in order through the Northwoods. I drove 25 miles out of Duluth to Boulder Lake and was lucky enough to be the 1st person of the season on the trails. After a 11.5 kilometer ski through a Winter Wonderland, I returned to the trailhead and grabbed my new tripod. Actually I wrapped it around my bicep and headed back out into the forest.

I took the photograph shown below by attached the tripod to the trunk of a small pine tree, and then using the carpenters level which is built into the tripod to insure a level photo. Pretty Cool. Merry Christmas from the Northstar Nerd!

Click upon either image to maximize.

Read my trail report via SkinnySki.Com ... learn more about Boulder Lake.

 

Northern Newspaper App ... the USA Today

You may not think of the USA Today as the newspaper of Duluth, Minnesota. After all, Gannett certainly does not target the NorthstarNerd who lives in the frozen northland! However, spend some time with my post and you will learn a number of items:

1. The USA iPad App is phenomenal, and free!
2. Old media which does not adjust is doomed.

Let's address the second item first. The largest newspaper in the state of Minnesota, the Star Tribune, offers a digital only subscription for $52 per year. While I applaud the Star Tribune for their efforts, review of their iPad app demonstrates a less than optimal user interface, and integrated digital media. Like most newspapers, the Star Tribune covers national stories, but they are really only repeating what any netizen can get from better national sources who have deepers pockets (like the USA Today).

In terms of the first item, review some of the images I've included below. I added USAToday.Com to each image to insure proper attribution. You'll discover that the USA Today has an easy menu, and integrated video, weather, and high resolution photographs. I've only included sports photos, but they have the "Day in Pictures" for each section. One of my personal games is to review all the high-res celebrety photos and see if I even know who are the stars and starletts featured (normally, the answer is "no"!). I also like to toggle the descriptions on and off for the main "Day in Pictures" photos, and see if I understand or know the context.

The USAToday is one reason I love my iPad. The reading experience is wonderful, and "consuming" the app has become part of my daily routine.

Oh yes ... why is the USAToday the NorthstarNerd's newspaper of choice. Believe it or not, I am constantly amazed how often they have photos of Winter sports events presented in a manner which my Minnesota media does not. (two versions of every photo ... with and without captions).

Enjoy! (one football photo for you non Winter sports fans)

Remember ... click on any image to expand and view at full resolution.

 

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Biathlon! (Nordic Skiing)

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Ski Jumping 1! (Nordic Skiing)

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Bob Sledding!

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Cross-Country Skiing! (Nordic Skiing)

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Ski Jumping 2! (Nordic Skiing)

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Downhill Skiing! (Alpine Skiing)

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American Football

YouTube (now managing your content!)

Google / YouTube announced last week that schools may now configure their firewalls to only allow access to YouTube.Edu (engineering courses). This is a HUGE move on Google's part, as they had never allowed any YouTube content to be filtered. It will now be possible to view educational courses, while at the same time preventing folks on your private network from wasting bandwidth of cat herding videos (or worse from a legal vantage point).

I applaud this view, as I hope and expect in the future it will be possible for corporations to selectively enable YouTube content. While I love the service, providing access to all of YouTube can be difficult for many organizations for both legal (think schools and porn) and bandwidth reasons. 

Here are some links you may find useful to understand the change:

• Article explaining the change from Wired.Com
• YouTube for Schools Configuration Link | Architecture / Create Account
• YouTube.Edu: Business Courses
• YouTube.Edu: Engineering Courses

Elm Creek Park Nordic Ski Photos

Normally I only use my GoPro camera for cross-country ski races. However, this afternoon I decided I would take photos of citizen skiers out for a fun afternoon. Due to the lack of snow, the entire world turned out to ski at Elm Creek on the 2 km man made snow loop. There is not a single photo of me, but you'll find my wife in the earlier shots (woman with light blue hat, and dark blue stocking cap)!

I wear my GoPro on my back and take still shots of everyone else. SkiCam Man returns for my 3rd Winter. Enjoy!

Here are my two Picasa links:

• Static
• Slideshow (better for viewing ... may need to advance manually)

A quick side note. GoPro cameras take better photos when it is sunny ... during my ski it got cloudy.

Do The Needful

I work for a large Fortune 100 firm, and my job involves collaborating with people from all over the world. Over the past few months, a number of us from the USA had remarked in casual conversation how colleagues from India often used the English phrase: "Do the needful". While we understood the request, this particular phrase was not common to our own local use of the English language. 

This morning I finally decided to ask "the Google", and I discovered I really like the phrase and its implication of respect and trust. Here an excerpt from the the Wikipedia article:

"Do the needful" is an archaic expression which means "do that which is necessary", with the respectful implication that the other party is trusted to understand what needs doing without being given detailed instruction.

The expression is now current mainly in South Asian English (Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan). The expression was current in both British^[1]and American English^[2] well into the early 20th century. In later years it was sometimes used as parody example of contemporary South Asian English.

I enjoy learning from my global peers! What experiences have you had?