Popular keywords 2011

2011 WordPress dash board

HTML5

HTML5 is more amo for the family geek who responds “I’ll be there in 5 minutes” when you tell them dinner is ready.  Well now they’ll start showing up 2 hours late to dinner because they just can’t stop working. Watch a video slideshow streaming with no Adobe Flash player (except Microsoft IE – tisk, tisk) by clicking the picture below.

Paradise

Devices you can plug into a hacked Wurlitzer

Streaming Internet Radio for $40 bucks

Where’s QRaldo

2009-2011 summary of the journey of socialnaut Greg Rank piloting the OSULRC-1 through the social media landscape.

Black Eye Galaxy courtesy of NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope

Return on Social Media Assets = Socialogue

Socialogue figured out how to measure Return on Social Media Assets. I was lucky enough to be asked to Alpha test their web based software tool.

Socialogue

Tweet A minus Tweet B equals “cute”

Greg’s Q2 2011 Photovoltaic Summary:

In the June 2011 edition of Wired Magazine, Mr. Bill Gates is quoted saying: “….installing solar panels on your roof is doing nothing to reduce CO2 emissions. It’s merely cute.” Since Bill Gates made that statement it must be true. Enter a 3KW Photovoltaic Power roof top electric generating system. Below are statistics from my 3KW PV power generating system. (past 90 days):

Total Power Generated: 1.367 MWh

Greg's Solar Array

*CO2 saved: 1951 lbs

*Trees Saved: 118

*Gas Displaced: 99 gal

*Source: PVPowered Bend, Oregon USA: Tweet A minus Tweet B equals Q2 2011 PV Power Summary

One million roof tops with a 3Kw PV generator would save 118 million trees, displace 99 million gallons of gas or save 1,951,000,000 (almost two billion lbs of CO2) quarterly. “Cute indeed.”

The opportunity to bet on an embarrassment, solar podcast and …

Podcast for May 2011

• Building a 1 megawatt hydrogen generator –  Solar Podcast 
• Links and related articles and video for the podcast

The opportunity to bet on an embarrassment

Making a movie with family and friends has unintended consequences. After enjoying my movie premiere a few years ago, I used a free Withoutabox promotion to submit my original movie short, “Elliot’s War”, to a film festival and also get a free listing on IMDB.

Dave Fichman has two masters degrees and teaches high school history. He also plays Commander Silk of the USAF in the original movie short, “Elliot’s War”.

One of Dave’s tools for building rapport with high school students is a method he calls, “the opportunity to bet on an embarassment.”  It’s like a dare; if you think someone is lying to you, you can bet on it, with consequences (i.e.  embarrassment if you are wrong).

Dave told a student that he was listed as an actor on IMDB. The student did not believe him. So Dave offered the student an opportunity to bet on it, for an embarassment. His student took the challenge (voluntarily) and lost. The student’s consequence:  Sing “The Good Ship Lollipop” in the outdoor quad with all the hand gestures a la Shirley Temple, in front of the entire student body at lunch time.

Fits right in with my musical philosophy of “Make Just One Person Happy”. 

Commander Silk - "Elliot's War"

In other news:

The OSULRC-1 completed its one year journey through the social media landscape; our accidental data analyst is mining the information gathered for a future white paper (perhaps Q2 or Q3 summary).

Removing Windows Defender Virus from a Windows Computer:

This little gem of a virus hides all user folders and programs (and edits your registry), causing one to think all of your data is gone (but it’s not).

To remove the Windows Defender Virus, watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeksTbQVAKk

Once you  locate all files from the virus (second half of the above video), boot off of latest ISO of PuppyLinux to find and delete hidden virus files from their location on your computer. Download and run  unhide.exe to re-set all folders and programs from hidden to visible.

To make desktop icons reappear:

Type “regedit” or “regedit.exe” into the dialog box. Press “Enter” or click ”OK.”

Navigate through “HKEY_CURRENT_USER,” “Software,” “Microsoft,” “Windows,” ”CurrentVersion” and “Policies.”  Click “Explorer.” Double-click the value “NoDesktop” from the right pane.

Change the value to “0.” Click “OK” – Reboot.

Windblows needs a condom, I use: Malwarebytes.

The cow that dressed like Grandpa

The daily commute is often full of pleasant surprises. This one I call “The cow that dressed like Grandpa”. Click to enlarge. Also new 2011 short 2 minute Solar podcast and related links. Bananas and Pineapples stronger than Kevlar.

Bananas and Pineapples stronger than Kevlar (Podcast)

Links and picture of Buffalo Grass from Podcast above

The cow who dressed like Grandpa - click to enlarge

Songwriting and Project Management – a Repeatable Process

Click to enlarge

by Greg Rank

As someone who makes songwriting a regular part of his life, the process usually begins with a title. In one hundred words or less I am asked to create what has been referred to as a three minute movie. A songwriter pays attention to 25 or more other micro details per song. Songwriter demo technology changes every year so songwriters also tend to be notorious computer geeks.

I have been called upon by a local theater group to run sound twice a year for live variety shows that are produced much like flying an airplane while it is being built or a path whose stones are being laid while it is hiked. Lamaze breathing comes in handy as I am literally part of the show and for two hours I can’t take my eyes off two laptops, a mixing board with nine microphones, and lighting cues, while taking calls from backstage fielding the unexpected.

Click to enlarge

On the right is a screenshot of a project timeline using Microsoft SharePoint that illustrates the tasks involved in organizing and sizing disk space (here called a SAN for Storage Area Network) for a video production company. A similar process is what helps me stay organized as a I relocate technology for a corporate office or work with seven different software development teams (US and India based) while helping move two Internet software products to nine different data centers over a five year period while maintaining 99.9% uptime and churning out impressive customer savings.

Click to englarge

A  process diagram like the one on the left is not my first and can help define and organize the tasks or document data center configurations.

For me, a lifelong penchant for songwriting combined with a career in technology and continual technical education has resulted in a repeatable project management process. A thriving career in technology and an above average life has been the result.

One year I met the American comedy legend, Tom Smothers, who honored me by performing the following joke (that I wrote for him) live onstage at the Sebastiani Theater as he impersonated the late Johnny Carson. Tom (as Carson): “It sure is cold outside.” Audience: “How cold is it?” Tom: “It’s so cold outside that the ducks on the Plaza thought they were penguins and went over to John Lasseter’s house and asked for their own movie.” More Tom Smothers at Sebastiani: “The Pistol” and “The Sword”

Xwiki

I don't mind falling. I just don't want to fall off a cliff.

Four unexpected power failures were too much for our Dell server hosting Microsoft Server 2003 and WSS 3.0 (the free version of Share Point).  I never would have guessed that electrical work to install a backup generator would uncover a major defect in our heating/air conditioning system. The repair improved office heating efficiency so much that the cost savings paid for the generator backup system.

Power failures now only last 7 seconds, easily handled by each small individual UPS as midnight alarms for network down emergencies become a thing of the distant past.

Xwiki is a great collaboration stand-in when Microsoft Share Point is unavailable.