If Jupiter was the same distance as the moon

I love this image created by jb2386 on Reddit depicting a landscape if Jupiter was the same distance from Earth as the Moon is. Very cool.

Cleveland Indians spending

We all know about the major expenditures the Cleveland Indians have made for the 2013 season.

But did you know that high school baseball for boys and softball for girls in the Cleveland metropolitan school district is 100% funded by Cleveland Indian Charities and would not exist without them?

Kudos to the Tribe.

The last Eggshelland

Ron and Betty Manolio have been commemorating Easter and entertaining the community with Eggshelland since 1957.

Ron Manolio passed away last year so Betty and the kids and grandkids decided there should be one last Eggshelland as a tribute to Ron and to thank the community.  Thank you Ron and Betty.

Photos and videos of the last Eggshelland

KISS Easter Eggs

These eggs Rock and Roll all night and party everyday.

See more fun Easter eggs, bunnies, etc.

Baseball Puzzle

Here's a puzzle to get you in the mood for the upcoming baseball season.

Let's say that for the first half of the baseball season, Nick Swisher hits for a higher batting average than Asdrubal Cabrera. During the second half of the season, Swisher again hits for a higher average than Cabrera.

Is it possible for Cabrera to have a higher average for the season as a whole?

It sure is.

The Great Lakes Geek will post a solution in a few days but think about it first. If you know how it could happen, leave a comment.

19 days

Bob Feller's old #19 jersey came in handy for Tribe PR boss Bob DiBiasio as he announced there are 19 days until the Cleveland Indians Home Opener!

Ed Fitzgerald and Marcy Kaptur are both running!

Breaking news!  Not only is Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald running, so is Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. 

Photo and 9 second video proof.

Happy Pi Day

We all know that Pi is the mathematical constant that is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it's diameter.  Pi is irrational and its decimal representation goes on forever and never settles into a repeating pattern.

Of course, Pi begins with 3.14159... so March 14 or 3-14 is celebrated as Pi Day.

Lotus - the end of an era

The Great Lakes Geek is sad that the Lotus name has been removed from the Notes/Domino name and the Lotusphere conference.  It’s hard to believe that it was way back in 1995 that IBM bought Lotus, essentially for the Lotus Notes product line. 

I don’t think you can overestimate the importance of Lotus 1-2-3 to the PC industry.  Jonathan Sachs had written a couple electronic spreadsheets and he and Mitch Kapor created Lotus in 1982 and released Lotus 1-2-3 for the IBM PC in 1983.

Lotus 1-2-3 is the main reason that businesses bought PCs.  It made the IBM PC the world standard.  In fact, the common test for a clone PC to be IBM PC compatible was that it be able to run Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Flight Simulator (to test the graphics).  There was even a rumor that Microsoft would intentionally change DOS just enough to mess up 1-2-3.  The motto was 'DOS ain't done till Lotus won't run.’'

If you are old enough, you may recall the first time you set up a spreadsheet and then changed a field (maybe a tax rate from 10 to 12%) and recalculated and watched the values update.  What power! The Geek actually first witnessed this with VisiCalc on a TRS-80.   1-2-3 soon eclipsed VisiCalc and Microsoft’s Multiplan never did offer much competition. 

The product was called 1-2-3 because it had 3 functions: Spreadsheet, Charting/Graphing and Database.  Of course the database and graphing functions seem prehistoric when viewed against Access or Excel but it was a big deal back then.  And many people used 1-2-3 as their only app, including as a word processor.  They loaded 1-2-3 in the morning and stayed in it all day.  The familiar A1 row/column screen was burnt into many CRT monitors.

Lotus 1-2-3 did not have the burden of accommodating modern GUIs.  The first versions were written in x86 Assembler Language (V 3.0 switched to C) and they wrote directly to video memory rather than slower OS or BIOS output.  It was fast!

As companies relied on 1-2-3 more and more, they soon reached the 640K limits of the PC and the industry developed expanded memory to break the 640k barrier.  I spent a lot of time on Quarterdeck’s QEMM eking out some precious extra kb of memory.

Lotus 1-2-3 was the first killer app and dominated for a decade.  The beginning of the end came when Lotus lost the famous “look and feel” lawsuit against Borland and their Quattro Pro spreadsheet.  The port from Assembler to C took more time than expected and in the meantime Microsoft launched Excel for the Mac.  As Windows grew market share, Excel for Windows grew with it.

Lotus Symphony was the successor to 1-2-3 offering an integrated suite including a word processor.  Symphony and the Lotus SmartSuite never gained the dominance and market share of 1-2-3 despite being excellent products.  I still find the dragging of a completed task in Lotus Organizer to a trash can and seeing it burst into flames as the most satisfying of any PIM/calendar. (remember PIMs?)

The Lotus name was revived with their revolutionary groupware program Notes which incorporated network communication and sharing.  It’s a terrific product but more for the enterprise whereas 1-2-3 was on every desktop, consumer or business.

Many software companies of that era could be identified with the CEO or other key player: Philippe Khan at Borland, Bill Gates at Microsoft, Gordon Eubanks at Symantec and so on.  These, and many others, were supporters of user groups and spoke at the Association of PC User Groups (APCUG) annual meetings at Comdex in Las Vegas. 

While Lotus had a presence, and some terrific user group reps (I remember Elena Fernandez – who else?), I don’t recall visits from Mitch Kapor, Ray Ozzie, Jim Manzi or other Lotus bigwigs.  Maybe my APCUG pals will correct me on this.

Just as we will never have someone like Walter Cronkite being viewed by most Americans, we will never again see a program dominate like Lotus 1-2-3.   For a trip down memory lane, you can download (legally) and play with early spreadsheets such as VisiCalc from Dan Bricklin’s page. 

Looking forward to other “mature” Geeks comments.

95th Lithuanian Independence Day

The Cleveland Lithuanian community gathered to celebrate the 95th anniversary of February 16, 1918 and the declaration of Lithuania's independence.

A slew of dignitaries and speeches was followed by a keynote address from Proctor and Gamble scientist Darius Sabaliunas who was born and raised in Klaipeda, Lithuania.

Then, kids from the Lithuanian Saturday School recited a poem in Lithuanian.  Other musical performers followed.

Photos and Videos from the Cleveland Lithuanian Independence Day celebration.

Pope Benedict XVI

Brian Burch of CatholicVote.org posted the following sentiment this morning (and the picture)

“Catholic Americans join their brothers and sisters in the Faith around the world in humble acceptance of the decision today by Pope Benedict XVI to leave the Chair of Peter later this month. This historic decision comes fittingly as the Church prepares to enter the season of Lent, where marked with ashes, we are reminded of our human limits and utter dependence on the grace and providence of the Lord of history. We are mindful that the universality of the Church is particularly visible during these historic events where the prayer, tradition, and grandeur of Catholicism are on display for the world to see. We give thanks for the rich pontificate of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, and await with joyful hope and prayer the workings of the Holy Spirit in our Church in the weeks ahead.”

Cleveland Aikikai Dojo featuring Aikido Martial Arts

On the 2nd floor of Asian Town Plaza on East 38th Street in Cleveland's AsiaTown you can find restaurants, art and the Cleveland Aikikai Dojo.

The Aikikai is the original school of Aikido. It is centered on the Aikikai Foundation in Japan, and its figurehead is the Doshu (the family heir of the founder of Aikido). It is represented globally through the International Aikido Federation.

Aikido is a Japanese martial art developed by Morihei Ueshiba as a synthesis of his martial studies, philosophy, and religious beliefs. Aikido is often translated as "the Way of unifying (with) life energy" or as "the Way of harmonious spirit." Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury.

Sensei Jim Klar of Cleveland Aikikai says that Aikido techniques teach one to prevent confrontation but how to deal with them if rational attempts do not succeed.

More about Cleveland Aikikai and Aikido

Sho-Jo-Ji Japanese Dancers

The Sho-Jo-Ji Japanese Dancers performance at the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration at Asia Plaza was very popular with the audience.

Chinese New Year in Cleveland Year of the Snake

The Year of the Snake was celebrated throughout Asia Town in Cleveland with day-long celebrations. Music, dance, Martial Arts, food, vendors, groups and, of course, a Lion Dance, were part of the festivities.

Photos and videos of Cleveland celebrations

Happy Chinese New Year

Johnny Wu, President of the Organization of Chinese Americans - Cleveland Chapter and co-founder of the Cleveland Asian Festival, explains the Year of the Snake and how to say Happy New Year in Mandarin in this short video clip from the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration at Asia Plaza in Cleveland’s AsiaTown.

Superbowl Snacks

SuperBowl Appetizers

Try some new snacks - and some classics - for the big game.

Pepper and Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Savory Beer Bread

Crunchy Pig Toes

Slow Cooked Chicken Tacos

Black Bean Salsa

Bacon and Spinach Stuffed Olives

Popcorn Snacking Mix

Miniature Corn Dogs with Dipping Sauce

Kicked Up Stuffed Celery

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

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What does a Lion look like?

One of the coolest parts of the new Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art is the abundance of interactive displays.

It gets you engaged and thinking more than a static piece of art might.

For example, one area of Gallery One has several pieces of art about lions and asks you to consider "What does a lion look like?"

You follow the prompts and start narrowing down key components to what the essence of a lion is. You can then see, in real time, how many other visitors agree with your selections.

More from Gallery One at Cleveland Museum of Art

World Class Tech at Cleveland Museum of Art

Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art is a unique, interactive gallery that blends art, technology and interpretation to inspire visitors to explore the museum's renowned collections.

This revolutionary space features the largest multi-touch screen in the United States, which displays images of over 3,500 objects from the museum's world-renowned permanent collection. This 40-foot Collection Wall allows visitors to shape their own tours of the museum and to discover the full breadth of the collections on view throughout the museum's galleries.

The interactive displays, the fun exhibits and the incredible Collection Wall make this world-class Gallery a must see.

Photos and video tours of the new space.

Bazinga

He has two Ph.D's and an IQ of 187, he plays 'Words with Friends' with Stephen Hawking, and he owns Leonard Nimoy's napkin.

The global march to spread the genius of The Big Bang Theory's Dr. Sheldon Cooper just crossed scientific fields, from theoretical physics to evolutionary zoo biology, as a new species of the Brazilian orchid bee — Euglossa bazinga — has been named after Dr. Coopper's zippy catchphrase - Bazinga.

Actual photos of this previously undiscovered species.

Brazilian biologist Andre Nemesio from the Universidade Federal de Uberlandia discovered the new species of beautiful, but misunderstood orchid bee that bears a striking resemblance to the Euglossa ignita, (or more common Western Brazilian orchid bee). Because the bees share so many similar characteristics, their existence as a separate species eluded scientists for years. Hence, the bees' grand 'bazinga' on the world of science!

Steven Molaro, one of The Big Bang Theory's executive producers, acknowledged the unprecedented honor on behalf of the show and Dr. Cooper.

 "We are always extremely flattered when the science community embraces our show. Sheldon would be honored to know that Euglossa bazinga was inspired by him. In fact, after "Mothra" and griffins, bees are his third-favorite flying creatures."

Ethanol issues

Modern fuel today contains up to 10-percent ethanol (E10). Most modern power equipment is designed to handle E10, but problems arise when fuel is left to stand for prolonged periods of time and especially with older equipment not designed to handle any ethanol. The high amount of oxygen present in ethanol naturally decays gasoline, which is organic.

Imagine if you left a jug of milk in the fridge and then left another jug of milk outside in the middle of the summer -- open. Obviously, the milk outside will decay much faster.

So if you let gas sit in your lawn mower or snow blower or other device, make sure you read these warnings.