Nottingham-Spirk Tour

The common perception would be that a building with 42 miles of Internet cable would be a modern steel and chrome edifice. But there is nothing common about John Nottingham and John Spirk - or their new Innovation Center.

I went to the Neosa meeting at the new Center last week and was blown away. Another world-class facility in that world-class mile or so around University Circle.

Check out some pics and details of the event.

The Man behind the Microchip

The Man behind the Microchip.
Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley by Leslie Berlin.

Because the modern tech industry is still so young, people may have personal recollections about some of the events when reading histories of the times. As such, they may also have a personal bias.

This book about Robert Noyce will probably not be a favorite of fans of William Shockley or Jack Kilby with whom Noyce shared credit for innovations. Nor to fans of Gordon Moore and Andy Grove who maybe don't get the credit they deserve from this book.

But in general, it's a very interesting look into the birth of a technology, industry and ultimately Silicon Valley.

I ended up giving it 3.5 (out of 4) pocket protectors.

Read my review

Clevelanders and others in the US should consider that in Noyce's last interview, he said that if he was "emperor" of the US he would "make sure we are preparing our next generation to flourish in a high-tech age. And that means education of the lowest and the poorest as well as the graduate school level."

tech skills=power, no tech skills=dependence - simple as that.

No Video for You

OK, it's not as catchy as the Soup Nazi's "No soup for you!" but I have not bought in to the video - streaming or otherwise - craze.

The new Apple iPod lets you watch video, like missed TV shows, on your device. Oh boy. If the shows are that importnat can't you Tivo or record some other way and watch on a decent screen?

And video webcasts seem like a waste. Even though most of us have decent speeds and bandwidth to support video, too many webcasts just show the speakers head; which may or may not move from time to time. Or they display a Powerpoint slide. Yawn. What a waste.

Plus, video has the same drawback as text - you have to focus your eyes on it whereas with audio (podcasts and the like) you can listen and still do other things.

Just because we have the technology to do video we need a more compelling reason to use it IMHO.

Great Lakes Geek

I have way too much to read. There are all kinds of interesting books out now it seems. Not to mention all the business and tech rags I devour.

Plus there are a ton of blogs that have interesting things to say. But even with RSS, I just don’t get to a fraction of them.

But I have found that I can listen to audio and still do other things – work, walk the dog, workout and so on.

I figured others might feel the same way so I started up a new podcast radio show called the Great Lakes Geek Show. Basically it’s a bunch of audio interviews with local and national people in the business and tech world – and some other categories too just for fun.

So I have a great interview with Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Publishing. Great article in Wired this month about Tim titled the Trend Spotter.

Also have Chuck Geschke, founder and chairman of Adobe, but I mangled the mic and the audio has some annoying imperfections. It’s worth the snap, crackle and pop though.

Much of the show will be local people – Tech Czar Mike DeAloia is up as is Neosa's Jim Cookinham and some others.

Most will probably just click on the MP3 link and listen at their PC but I did wrap some in XML to make it a real podcast. XML rocks!

Take a listen when you get a chance and let me know what you think – and who should be on the show.

The Myth of Dell

CRN's Michael Vizard had a great column in the 7/18/05 issue.

One of the comments was: "The myth is that Dell is the low-price leader. The reality is that Dell is exceptionally good at marketing systems that appear to have a low price to end users, but more often than not, when one actually configures the system with the appropriate amount of memory, drives and graphics cards to be really useful, it winds up costing as much as any other compatible system. In some cases, the price tag may come in at even more than what rivals are charging for the same fully configured system."

I have run into this for years. The advertised price sounds great but it has a low quality graphics card or insufficient RAM or... Something else.

Throw in the lack of local support and other options (like Magnum! ) look a lot better.

Ars Gratis Ars

I’m not really an art aficionado. I like to visit the CMA and other venues to see interesting stuff but I’m not a student of the field by any means.

So it is unusual that I would be at 2 arts events in a few days. Sunday I went to the Cain Park Arts Festival. It’s only a few miles from home so I popped in to check it out. Tons of people on a sweltering day and lots of interesting pieces from Cleveland and around the country (and even a booth from Israel).

Tuesday I only had to travel a couple miles more to get to the NEO Show at the Art Museum. Hahn Loeser is sponsoring the NEO Show - formerly the May Show - and they had a private viewing with some tasty drinks and hors d’oeuvres. It was sweltering again so not many people ventured out to the gardens where a harpist and other musicians played. Lots of bigwigs in attendance and CMA Director Katherine Lee Reid spoke for a few minutes.

The show itself was pretty wild. Some interesting pieces and mediums but a few items just flabbergasted me. One was some crates stacked with what the artist claims are exactly 100,000 clippings from the phone book. Another was a horizontal freezer. You were invited to lift the lid and yep, it was a freezer. Empty. That was the entire piece! Someone clue me in to the art behind that one. ;-) I see the same on tree lawns the night before trash pickup.

The best of show had me scratching my, admittedly untrained, head too. It was a black and white video displayed on one of the walls that featured the head and torso of a man screaming and contorting his face for 2 minutes and 27 seconds. That was “best in show.”

Well, it least it got people talking.

Maybe the coolest thing is that I could see these 2 shows without travelling more than about 4 miles.

Lose a few pounds?

If you've ever tried to shed a few (or more) pounds, you'll get a kick out of Claire - the self-acclaimed "Lumpy Girl"

She went public with her weight loss attempt - even posted a picture - and has been updating her progress for all to see. She's a riot to read - even for you skin and bones types.

Check out Claire

Nothing to do?

Ok, the worst thing about blogging IMO is posting a bunch of personal stuff that nobody really cares about anyway. But this is just a taste for all those who claim there is nothing to do in this city.

Where to start...Last Wednesday was a Community of Minds event at CPL downtown. George Nemeth spoke about blogging. The gardens at the library are wifi enabled and a great destination. The weather didn't cooperate that night but it was still a good event. Have you been there?

Thursday - my sand volleyball league out at Bumpers. Indoor is fun but nothing beats sand vball. You don't have to play - lots of people come to watch, drink, eat, listen to tunes, hang out.

Friday - went to the SeniorFest at the Zoo for ClevelandSeniors.Com. I try to get to the zoo a couple times a year. It's so close and so cool. Should do it more. When's the last time you went to the zoo?

Saturday - The Powwow at Edgewater. The American Indian Education Center sponsored their 11th annual Powwow all weekend and it was a new experience for me. Represenatives from various Tribes came from all over - Ontario, North Carolina, Minnesota, etc. Great costumes, dancing, music, crafts - even buffalo meat burgers.

I ended up with a poster featuring Geronimo and 3 others holding guns. The headline says "Homeland Security - Fighting terrorists since 1492."

Sunday I caught the Tribe (9 in a row!) and then headed over to the Irish Summerfest in Euclid for some Guiness and some tunes.

A million other things going on too but still I have friends who complain that "there's nothing to do in this city."

My only complaint is those pesky bugs that have been swarming for the last week.

Perfect for the Dawg Pound

Heard a new term today - migth be old hat to many of you - but it was new to me.

Blawgs - Blogs for law firms.

A consultant sent out a press release called "‘Blawgs’ Little More Than An Expensive Hobby for Many Law Firms."

Wish I had thought of that name.

Windows Server Installfest

We will have a special meeting of the Windows Server SIG this Saturday May 21st. We will be doing live installs of Windows Server 2003 on some donated Compaq servers. Time permitting we will bring them up to SP1 level.

Sky Bank donated the servers and Microsoft donated the server software. The completed servers will then be donated to several non-profit sites through Computers Assisting People - CAP.

Paul Stork will lead the session and because it is hands-on, attendance will be extremely limited. RSVP if you want to attend - first come, first serve.

The meeting will be at the CAP Resource Center at 3154 Payne Ave from 10AM till noon.

Deja Vu all over again

I was reading Crain''s today.

There was a frontpage headline about business leaders pledging an "allegiance to regionalism." Seems these 30 business leaders from 18 counties are getting together to form a far reaching business development group. How promising.

Also on Page 1 is a story about public companies dealing with criticism from people posting about them on the Internet. Damn bloggers

The Op/Ed page has an item titled "Academia, corporate worlds need better link." Sounds like a plan.

The type of stuff we read about every week.

But this is from Vol 19 No. 14 from April 6-12, 1998. I was cleaning up some stuff at the office today and discovered this issue stuffed in a box.

7 years and just how far have we come? It would be funny if not so sad.

Moral Courage

I just read a great book - Moral Courage: Taking Action when your values are put to the test by Rushworth M. Kidder. Kidder is the founder of the Institute for Global Ethics and this is his 3rd book on the topic. So he was doing ethics before it became a popular topic.

The book has a bunch of real-world case studies that show the challenges of being moral in the modern world.

It's tough to be moral today. New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote (in 93) how it was becoming more common for society to “choose not to notice behavior that would otherwise be controlled, or disapproved or even punished.”

Not to mention "groupthink" - the effect where a team, for example, makes decisions none of the individuals would have made on their own.

He is optimistic in the ability to teach moral courage and, to prove this isn't a topic just for the new millenium, quotes Aristotle: "We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”

I have a lengthier review of the book posted. It's worth your time.

School all year?

We have an interesting survey going on at ClevelandSeniors.com. Though the site is geared to the 50 and over crowd (and those who care for and about them) we get a bunch of younger visitors - and many of them vote in the anonymous surveys.

The current vote asks "Should Children go to School year round? "

Some of the comments are predictable - Yes - kids in other countries do and we are falling behind. Yes - it keeps kids off the streets. No - teachers won't work year round. No - kids need a break and so on.

I am surprised at the number of comments along the lines of - "It would help the parents out - they won't need daycare in the summer" or "At least if they go to school, kids will get a few decent meals each day in the summer."

Have we really come to this where schools are seen as providers of social services - as opposed to educational institutions?

Littlest Heroes

My cousine Annie volunteers at a pretty cool organization. It's called The Littlest Heroes.

It's a local non-profit that provides services to kids with cancer and their families. As you can imagine, they have a bunch of sad but true accounts of bravery from the kids.

It's cool that they focus on the entire family because, let's face it, that is a traumatic ordeal for all involved. It's tough enough to watch helplessly as an older member of the family succumbs to the disease (been there, done that - turned down the t-shirt) so I can't imagine how it must feel to have the helplessness multiplied when it's a kid.

Check it out when you are thinking of contributing time or some dough.

Count your Blessings

One of the coolest things about CAP (Computers Assisting People) is the people you deal with. Not just the recipients and the volunteers, though they have stories that could fill several volumes.

Because we are volunteers and many of our large donation pickups need to be done during office hours, we sometimes use guys from local shelters and other agencies that we have a relationship with.

Just last week we worked with some guys just out of prison. They are always good for some fascinating stories but this one stuck with me.

We took them to the Galleria after a work session so they could get something to eat. One of the men had just been released from prison after 16 years. His eyes grew as he looked at the plethora of choices available at the food court. He hadn’t been able to select his food - and certainly not such a variety - in over 16 years.

He settled on some Chinese food, which he had never had before.

Remember that the next time you are feeling unfotrtunate or depressed - and count your blessings.

Major Problem Solved?

There are about 7 major problems in Mathematics that have been around for a century or so and have a $1 million reward if solved.

It looks like one of them has been solved.

In 1904, the brilliant Henri Poncare (the other great mathematician of his era was David Hilbert) came up with a conjecture in topology regarding the 3-sphere. Basincally it says that the 3-sphere is unique among all 3-D manifolds. A young (all great mathematics is done at a very early age) Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman posted his proof and has been defending it the last 2 years. It looks like it is accurate.

It is possible that our universe might have the shape of a 3-sphere. The math behind the new proof may influence particle physics and Einstein’s theory of gravity.

Scientific American has a great explanation and even a primer on topology in the July issue.

Lows and Highs

I was kind of depressed after yesterday AM's Futures Forum at the PBL Building at Case.

Neosa and REI@Weatherhead put together a dynamite panel moderated by Dr Luis Proenza, president of the University of Akron.

Manuel Glynias, the founder of NetGenics represented Biotech. Lev Gonick, CIO of Case represented higher education and IT, Scott Rickert, President of Nanofilm Ltd. was there for nanotechnology and Industry Week’s John Soat gave an IT and Journalism perspective.

Except for Rickert who saw great promise, especially locally, for nanotech, the others were more sobering. It seemed that many of the things that have to be done to make our community, country and world improve the way they could and should are beyond our control. Self-serving and shortsighted politicians have too much power and are reluctant, if not adamantly opposed, to considering the broader vision and hence, the broader good.

That doesn’t mean we quit trying - we actually have to try more - lots more.

My mood picked up Wednesday evening. John Nottingham & John Spirk spoke at the JCU Entrepreneur’s Association dinner meeting at MOCA. Their brilliant designs have yielded numerous companies, countless jobs and hundreds of millions in revenue for the area. Their focus on consumer products, 70% of the US economy, was in contrast to the morning’s glimpse at bio, nano and info tech.

Check out the review of Nottingham & Spirk and wait for the mood upswing.

1 2 years ago today?

What were you doing 12 years ago? I can actually remember. March 5, 1992 I was cruising all over town - even had Channel 3 and 8 following and filming me. Why?

Because on March 6, 1992, the Michelangelo Virus was going to kick in.

Viruses were new back then - this was pre-Internet (the Internet we know today at least) days and most infections were caused by sharing floppy disks. I used to go to the library and borrow software whenever I wanted to test a new virus. Those disks were like Petri dishes - every virus out there seemed to end up on those disks.

The hype was enormous - this was all new to a world that was increasingly dependent on their PC as a business tool. We weren’t sure what exactly would happen.

I remember explaining to Channel 8’s Martin Savidge just what possible damage could be done. Now the level of naivety seems almost quaint as we are accustomed to routine virus and worm outbreaks.

My advice back then is the same as it is now - backup your important data regularly, store it offsite, test the restore process occasionally and keep your anti-virus definitions current. Now I add, make sure your systems patches are up to date.

Michelangelo did little damage compared to the hype. There were random outbreaks, many in Japan, and some annoyances and expense, but nothing like some predicted. All the exposure may have done some good in alerting people to possible infections and the need for backups.

My favorite virus (yes, I had favorites because most were not malicious) was the Cookie Virus. It would randomly, and with increasing frequency, pop up a window on your screen with the message “Give me a cookie.”

If you knew, or guessed, to type in “Oreo” it would say thanks and remove itself. Those were indeed simpler days.

Freedom to Blog

Way back in the 80’s, I was communicating via electronic bulletin board systems (BBS) with friends in what was then the Soviet Union. They would move from town to town with a PC, modem and printer keeping a few steps ahead of the KGB. Using the incredible power of the technology, they would print newsletters and communicate with Westerners like me who had access to more information than they could have dreamed of.

In fact I learned of the revolutions in Russia before the international press did, thanks to these brave patriots.

I was reminded of this as I read this week about 54 people being jailed in China over their Internet use. Check it out

I am sure if we are hearing about 54 cases, the real number is significantly higher.

Amnesty International is calling for their release. Their crime? Expressing their opinions on the Internet. We bloggers, even far-too-infrequent contributors like me, should be thankful for our great freedom to read and post pretty much what we want.

We should also remember the great empowerment that technology can bring to a person, group or idea. It helped bring down the Soviet Union. Maybe someday it will help in other restricted lands.

Wi-fi presentation at CSU

Saturday January 10th, the Greater Cleveland PC Users Group will be presenting a 2-part program on wireless in Cleveland.

The event is free and open to the public.

I will be doing a presentation on the basics of wi-fi with an in depth look at Intel’s Centrino technology.

Then Dell Klingensmith will talk about the OneCleveland project.

Location:
University Center UC1 Auditorium.
Cleveland State University
University Center
East 22nd Street

Parking
Park under the Main Classroom Building. Right turn into the Main Classroom Building parking lot G. This is off E. 22nd between Euclid Avenue and Chester Avenue. Other parking is available. Parking rate is approximately $3.00.