Category Archives: Buzzing Topics

Fun with SurfacePro and Post-it(R) Notes!

Posted on March 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Mobile Development, Social Media, Software Development, Technology Topics

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No Budget, No Pay Act Signed By Obama

Posted on February 8, 2013 | Leave a comment


http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/23/opinion/avlon-no-budget-no-pay

The link above is to a nice opinion piece about the “No Budget, No Pay” act that recently passed, and has now been signed by the President.

Obviously not a cure-all for Washington’s ills, but it is a step in the right direction toward holding Congress accountable for passing a budget.

Congratulations to nolabels.org for spearheading the effort.  It shows yet again that grassroots efforts can make a difference, and this one is great as it prioritizes progress over ideology.

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Leisure, Management and Leadership Topics, Personal Stories, Rants

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Super Bowl Ad Faves 2013

Posted on February 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

I decided to keep a list during the Super Bowl of my favorite ads.  Here’s this year’s list.  I think the Montana Stain from Tide was my winner this year.

Enjoy!

Oreo

My wife is a soon-to-be ex-librarian, so I thought this was a good one.

Volkswagen

I guess this had some backlash.  Calm down, mon.  The dude is from Minnesota, after all.

Taco Bell

I have this vision that this is what goes on in the retirement communities during the winter.

Tide

The magic Montana stain was a brilliant and funny concept.

Cars.com

This one reminds me of the outpost.com ad of many years ago.

Here’s the cars.com commercial:

The ads are fun, aren’t they?

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Leisure, Personal Stories, Rants, Social Media

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3M Technology Changing Medicine

Posted on February 2, 2013 | Leave a comment

Some of the cool stuff we are doing at 3M in software are some of the industry’s best kept secrets.  One example is our Littmann 3200 Bluetooth Stethoscope.  My team worked with the division to create this system.  This telemedicine technology is some really cool stuff.  Here’s a link to a great video about this project.  Also, it’s getting some great press from healthcare leaders, highlighted by a great post coming out of Microsoft.

We’ve got several more examples of great software technology coming out of 3M.  Stay tuned as I intend to share more about what we are doing!

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Management and Leadership Topics, Software Development, Technology Topics

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A new way for politics?

Posted on January 27, 2013 | 1 Comment

Over the last month or two I have been paying a little attention to a newly formed group called No Labels. Simply put, they aren’t Democrat, Republican, Liberal or Conservative. The group touts itself as a group of Americans who are interested in putting America first over partisan politics and figure out how to compromise.

Interesting thought. I am going to continue to follow them for a while and see if they can get meaningful traction. I like the idea, but it flies in the face of today’s Washington culture which continues to promote extremism and division. I applaud the efforts of No Labels and hope they can change the tone in Washington and across the nation.

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Rants

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Aside

Is anyone else tired of this election season?  If you watch television at any time during the day, you can’t avoid the latest attack ads designed to embarrass and humiliate a candidate.  Is this necessary? I did a little unscientific research … Continue reading →

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Posted on October 19, 2012

Congratulations, Lyle!

Posted on August 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

I just got my hands on Delivering Mobile-Friendly Websites with MVC4, authored by my colleague and friend Lyle Luppes (blog). I am really happy for him and this accomplishment.

I am not a software engineer, so I would not get much personal value in reading this book. However, I would not hesitate recommending this work to any software engineer interested in this topic. I have worked with Lyle for many years, on many projects, and I know his work to be thorough. Great job, Lyle! Congratulations on this accomplishment!

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Management and Leadership Topics, Mobile Development, Reading, Software Development, Technology Topics

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At the Epicenter of Big Data Research

Posted on March 28, 2012 | 4 Comments

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I am wiped out as I am on the plane home from my most recent experience at MIT.  This week the topic was Big Data.  Big Data is a big topic around the water cooler these days, so I thought it would be important to learn more about it.  The title of the course was Big Data: Making Complex Things Simpler.  This was a 2 day Executive Education course designed to brief managers and executives on this exploding field.

First of all, if you are interested in this topic I highly recommend making the investment of time and money to attend a future offering.  Professors Erik Brynjolfsson and Sandy Pentland, leading researchers in Big Data present a well-crafted curriculum that connects a great deal of their research around how Big Data now provides the technology framework to do, very quickly, what researchers have done for years – create hypotheses, design experiments and analyze results.  Because of Big Data technologies, organizations can become more data-driven in their operations and/or product development.  Key issues including data privacy and data ownership are discussed as well, but this landscape is changing very rapidly, so it was challenging to go into too much depth.

If you are looking to better understand Big Data technologies, this is not the course to take.  However, if you are looking to spend a few days better understanding the ramifications of Big Data and how they impact organizations, I highly recommend making the investment.  The participants in the class contributed greatly to the discourse, which I appreciated as well. Plus, it was a great place to network and find out what is happening in other industries related to Big Data.

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Posted in Agile, Big Data, Buzzing Topics, Management and Leadership Topics, Mobile Development, Software Development, Technology Topics

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The New iPad Is Here…The New iPad is Here!

Posted on March 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

At last, the new iPad has arrived.  This post will capture my very early impressions.  I will have more to say after I have gotten to work with it a bit more.

First, the setup was smooth and was done using a backup I had stored in the iCloud.  That was really neat, and it saved a lot of time — I was done in less than 5 minutes.  I was up and running in just a few minutes.  After the initial setup was done, I went back in and changed some sync preferences since this iPad had a little more space so I could carry some movies with me now.

The display is absolutely amazing.  The HD clarity is a big improvement over the iPad 2.  The dictation feature seems to work well also.  The device itself looks almost identical to the predecessor.  If I had to say anything, it might be a tad heavier, but if it is actually it can’t be by much.

More to come later as I use the device a little more.  At this point, I say “well done, Apple!”

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Management and Leadership Topics, Mobile Development, Software Development, Technology Topics

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Samsung Galaxy Note: Cool Phone!

Posted on January 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

Samsung Galaxy Note at CES 2012

Perhaps one of the most compelling announcements at the CES event last week was the Samsung Galaxy Note phone.  Their pitch was that this larger form factor phone removes the need to carry a tablet (e.g. iPad) and a phone.  The picture to the right highlights some of the key features.  The most prominent is the presence of a pen/stylus which enables the ability to do very precise drawing and sketching.  It’s thin profile and very soft display make it very easy to use (on the eyes, that is).

Caricatures on the Samsung Galaxy Note

The photo on the right was taken in the concourse of the Las Vegas Convention Center.  People were lined up hundreds deep to get their caricature done by a professional artist on the Galaxy Note.  It was arguably one of the most popular exhibition of the show.  I think it’s a neat device that will probably do well this year.

Here’s a link to their promo on YouTube.

Here’s a blog post with some of the technical details, including lack of an actual release date in the US.

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Posted in Buzzing Topics, Mobile Development, Technology Topics

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