Yearly Archives: 2007

Fun With Maps

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One of the things I do for my day job is manage the sales of sponsorships, exhibit space and advertising for a non-profit professional society.  For a variety of reasons I’m often asked where our customers’ offices are located.  For instance my client might have a local event and want to target companies in that region for sponsorships.  Typically I just do a search of my database by zip code or state, which works fine for areas I’m very familiar with, but it’s tough for me to get a sense of how many companies we deal with in an area I’m not familiar with.  For instance I’m very familiar with the northeast corridor of the US so I don’t have a problem pulling the data together very quickly for a Philadelphia event, but I’m not at all familiar with the western US so I’m not at all sure if a company in Calabasas is a good prospect for a local event in San Francisco. 

Yesterday I decided to take some time and use Google Maps’ new My Maps feature and load in my vendor database. Note: I wouldn’t do this if you couldn’t make the map "private" so that it can’t be searched or found by others, but I can share the page with whomever I want which makes it a good collaborative tool with my client.  Since there are several hundred records in my database I decided to input only the exhibitors from this year’s conference to see if it was worth the effort.  After putting in the 60+ companies I looked at the result and was amazed to see how much it changed my perspective.  Not only did it give me a good sense of how my exhibitors were distributed, but it allowed me to zoom in on a city and click on the little balloons for each company and see who was in Washington or Philly or wherever.  Very cool.

I did a little more playing around and found out that I could download the map to view in Google Earth.  That caused me to remember an article in Business 2.0 about a company that allows you to "mashup" your own data with Google Maps via a free service called Geocommons.  I went to Geocommons.com and signed up for a free account, and then tried to upload a file but found that it had to be in KML format which I know nothing about (i.e. I was in over my head).  So I did a search on KML and found a website called batchgeocode.com that will take data from an Excel spreadsheet or any tab-delimited file and convert it to KML.  I used the site to convert my vendor data to KML and then opened it in Google Earth.  Voila, all of my vendors are now mapped on Google Earth and I can zoom in and click on the little icon and see all the contact information right there.  VERY cool and I didn’t have to actually type in all the data.

I’m sure there are applications for this that I haven’t even imagined, but if you give me enough time I’m sure I can find something totally ridiculous to do with it.  If nothing else I’m good at figuring out how to quickly turn the useful into the inane.

Is it a Blog if You Call it a Blog?

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The Winston-Salem Journal just launched a new Harry Potter "blog" called the Muggle Report.  I put quotes around the word blog because I really don’t know if I’d call this thing a blog.  I’d lean more towards calling it a micro-site rather than a blog for two simple reasons:

  1. It doesn’t have an interactive feel to it.  No comments enabled, at least that I could find, although they do have entries from a contest they ran asking kids to write an article predicting how the book series would end.  That’s pretty cool but not really a function of the "blog".
  2. To me a blog is something more than a static information site.  It usually reflects the personality of the folks posting information and has a dialog (see above) within its walls.  This site feels like a one-off tied to a big event (the release of the last Potter book and the release of the latest Potter movie).  I suspect that it will have a short life and will then be archived, which to me says its more of a special interest site.  A real world analogy would be the difference between a magazine that is run in every Sunday paper and a special insert like the Pro Football preview that is inserted in the Sunday paper at the beginning of the football season.

Now is it that big a deal what they call it?  Probably not, but just like I wouldn’t call Time magazine a book I wouldn’t call this site a blog.  Of course if it grows legs and keeps going, with the writers and readers engaging in a constant dialog about all things Potter (think of it as a Potter Book Club debate) then it could definitely be termed a blog. 

Blog or no blog, I’m still left wondering why no comments?  I’m willing to bet they’d get a bunch of traffic from that younger audience that every paper in America is pursuing.  They might even get their average reader age south of the AARP line.

Mr. Destiny

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Via Jake’s comment on an earlier post I learned that the movie Mr. Destiny was filmed right here in Winston-Salem.  In a follow up email he informed me that Jim Belushi’s high school baseball team in the movie was played by the Mt. Tabor high school team at the time and the opposing team was played by RJ Reynolds’ team.  I checked out the movie’s listing on IMDB and found the following locations listed for filming:

  • Biltmore Estate, 1 Approach Rd., Asheville
  • Ernie Shore Field, 401 Deacon Blvd., Winston-Salem
  • Graylyn Conference Center, 1900 Reynolda Rd., Winston-Salem
  • Grecian Corner, 101 Eden Terrace, Winston-Salem

I think I’m gonna have to rent it just to look for the landmarks.

I Learn Somthing New Every Day, Winston-Salem Edition, cont.

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Last month I posted some interesting information I’d learned about Winston-Salem and commenter Jacob McConnico added his own list that I kind of blew my mind.  Here it is:

  1. Ben Folds went to Reynolds and is from Winston. Chuck Folds
    (brother of Ben and bass player for the popular Triad band Bus Stop)
    went to Mt. Tabor. Their mom still lives in Winston.
  2. Liner notes of R.E.M.’s Eponymous clearly states the band’s first
    album was recorded at Mitch Easter’s drive-in in Winston-Salem, N.C.
  3. Stuart Scott is from Winston and went to R.J.R.
  4. Grecian Corner Restaurant on Eden Terrace (below Baptist
    Hospital) served as the pizza parlor for the movie Mr. Destiny, which
    was filmed in Winston.
  5. Wikipedia says Jackée Harry from 227 was born in Winston.
  6. The shell-shaped gas station on Sprague Street was one of only
    eight built in the United States in the 1930s. I have read that it is
    the last one.
  7. The North Carolina School of the Arts was the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation.
  8. Some famous people have gone to NCSA, including:
    • Tom Hulce (Amadeus, Animal House)
    • Terrence Mann (very famous Broadway performer)
    • Mary-Louise Parker (The West Wing, Fried Green Tomatoes)
    • Chris Parnell (SNL)
    • Jada Pinkett-Smith (A Different World, Menace II Society)
    • Missi Pyle (Galaxy Quest, Dodgeball)

Thanks Jacob!

Truth in Comics circa 1952

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Boing Boing posts a copy of a 1952 comic called T-Man that does as good a job as any I’ve seen of clearly explaining the Bush-Cheney doctrine on Iran.  You’ll get a kick out of some of the dialogue in which our hero calls someone "bub" and "chum", and you’ll notice a distinctly non-PC moment in the panel where the hero throw a pig at the Iranian and says "Here rag-head, take this little fellow home and barbecue him for breakfast!"

What really makes this seem such an accurate representation of the Bush/Cheney stance is that the hero, a U.S. Treasury agent, is breaking up a meeting between diplomats, those effetes that Cheney in particular seems to despise, who are signing an exclusive oil rights treaty between the US, Britain and Iran.  T Man’s response when confronted by the diplomats is "…Why should we split oil when we can bring in a few troops and take it all!"

M

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If you can be the first to guess what the title of this post represents then you win a free cup of coffee or even an adult libation, your choice, from yours truly. 

Rule the Web

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Mark Frauenfelder, he of BoingBoing, has written what I consider to be the most indispensable books I’ve purchased in a long time.  Rule the Web: How to Do Anything and Everything on the Internet — Better, Faster, Easier is the book I’ve often dreamed of writing, a practical guide to all the useful stuff online.  I can hear you saying, "How useful can a book about the web be?  Won’t it be out of date by the time you get it?"  I’d probably have agreed with you in the past, but having been an avid reader of BoingBoing for years I had confidence that this would be a worthwhile buy and upon skimming through it this week I can tell you it’s a great resource.  A couple of points:

  • Obviously the book will be dated in the not-too-distant future, but that just means I can look forward to updated editions. In the interim there’s a companion website, ruletheweb.net, that provides updates, corrections, video, etc.  Awesome!
  • Amazingly this book references Twitter which became all the rage with web geeks just a couple of months ago.  That just blows my mind.
  • Chapters include:
    1. Creating and Sharing
    2. Searching and Browsing
    3. Shopping and Selling
    4. Health, Exercise and Sports
    5. Media and Entertainment
    6. Travel and Sightseeing
    7. Work, Organization and Productivity
    8. Communication
    9. Toolbox
    10. Protecting and Maintaining
    11. Tips from My Favorite Bloggers
  • I love how within the chapters there are sub-categories and then within those Frauenfelder utilizes a Q&A format to address specific issues.  My favorite example so far is in the first chapter, Creating & Sharing, under the sub-category of "Photography and Video."  The question is "What’s the best way to share and store my videos online?"  Frauenfelder doesn’t like YouTube because of the poor video quality so he recommends signing up for a free blogging account at Vox.com and hosting your video there.   Each video can be up to 50 MB (compared to 10 MB for YouTube) which allows you to share much higher video quality.  FYI, Vox is a Six Apart product as is TypePad which is what I use for this blog so I’m kind of embarassed that I didn’t already know this.  For video files greater than 50 MB he recommends Internet Archive, but he points out the catch that you can’t copyright anything hosted there.  Fec and I were talking just last week about the lousy video hosting choices out there and then, "Voila!" I come across this great tip. 

I’m telling you, if you spend any amount of time online this is a GREAT resource.

More on that Prayer Thing

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As you may recall the esteemed leaders of Forsyth County, NC have decided to fight the ACLU on sectarian prayers being used to open county meetings. Our county leaders say they don’t want to tell anyone how to pray or be told by the ACLU that they have to tell people how to pray and they argue that they invite people of all denominations to pray.  Well, after a little digging I found that their idea of religious diversity is a bit wanting, but they’ve enacted a very technical system called "thumbing through the phonebook" that might lead to a more diverse set of religious leaders giving the opening invocation.  (BTW, a similar system was recently upheld in Georgia).

So what will happen when the first Muslim or Hindu is invited to give the invocation?  Well, if what happened in the US Senate is any indication we might be in for an interesting ride. From TPM:

Today was a historic first for religion in America’s civic life: For
the very first time, a Hindu delivered the morning invocation in the
Senate chamber — only to find the ceremony disrupted by three Christian
right activists…

The three protesters, who all belong to the Christian Right anti-abortion group Operation Save America,
and who apparently traveled to Washington all the way from North
Carolina, interrupted by loudly asking for God’s forgiveness for
allowing the false prayer of a Hindu in the Senate chamber. (Emphasis added)

Think of how much fun these yokels will have in their home state when they don’t even have to travel!  Here’s the video of the happenings from YouTube:

Oh, Good Lord. God, Paintball and Golf

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Until now I thought the craziest thing to come out of Wisconsin were the cheeseheads worn by Green Bay Packer fans.  That was before I read about the Christian paintball park in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin named Promised Land.  From the article:

Pastors, church youth leaders and mostly believers from Great Lakes states come here to bond and battle.

Every Canadian-made green paintball that stings you like the end of a
wet towel, does so with the grace of tiny Christian fish symbols
printed on their shell.

"I’ve looked in the Bible, and can’t find
anything wrong with paintball," reasons Andy Leong, a 48-year-old
Chicago marketing executive who’s come to celebrate the birthday of his
13-year-old son, Luke. "In fact, the Bible is filled with combat as a
topic."

The park, Leong says, preparing for battle, includes a lot of his
family’s Christian values — a prayer before combat, no swearing, no
cheating and no spiteful players…

This members-only facility, on most Saturdays, is a well-organized Christian missionary campaign.

"There’s an impression that Christians are wimps — that they’re just no fun," says Promised Land owner Rick Pinter.

"Christians can be tough and heroic."

In a little more than a decade, 40,000 people have fought for the glory of their God, and bragging rights here.

There is an entire Christian Paintball Players’ Association (CPPA) with
more than 4,000 members, largely in the U.S., but perhaps a couple
dozen in Canada.

"On a Sunday we could be in church, but why not
be out playing paintball and spreading the word?" says Dan Skinner, who
helps head an Ohio chapter of the CPPA.

The format for the game the reporter is engaging in appears to be a suitcase nuke sitting in an elevated jungle hooch with a timer visibly counting down and being guarded by 50 terrorist minders.  The goal is for the Christian soldiers to get to the nuke and stop the timer.

Man, this puts a whole new spin on youth group activities.  Who needs bowling or trips to the skating rink when you can go off some terrorists?  And that last line from the quote, you know the one where the guy justifies skipping church by saying he’s spreading the word in the middle of battle?  I’m thinking if I set up a Christian golf course I’ll be raking in the dough in no time.  Imagine the conversation in thousands of households:

Golfer: "Yes honey I realize its Sunday.  That’s why I’m going to play at Trinity CC and spread the Lord’s word while playing the Apostle course."

Spouse: "But what about church.  You know I hate sitting there with the kids all by myself, trying to keep them entertained.  I don’t even get to hear the sermon."

Golfer: "Well darlin’ you need to buck up.  I’m the Lord’s voice on the back nine and we all need to sacrifice to spread the Word."

Spouse: "Well that’s bullsh.."

Golfer: "Don’t say it!  I’m spreading the Word and that’s that.  Now where’s my damn driver?"

I mean I’m sitting smack dab in the middle of the Bible belt and golfer’s paradise.  What more do I need? A quick Google search reveals that there’s a Christian Golf Club of Central California and a couple of other golf-related ministries, but these are just groups and not actual facilities.  I may be on to something. Maybe we could do baptisms in the pond! 

Think of the potential investors.  Robertson, Falwell and company are more than a little business savvy and I’m sure they’d recognize the fundraising opportunities from the go.  Within a year we could be up and running with a Golfing for God Pro-Am, all donations tax-deductible and the standard 95% going to "administration fees" of the ministries. Yes, yes, yes I think we have a winner!

Fun With Photos at Picnik.com

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I read about this free photo editing site called Picnik and decided to give it a try. Below is a picture of our dog Arthur in it’s original format and then after I had some fun with it at Picnik. If you have pictures you want to edit and don’t want to spend a pile on Photoshop and don’t like the free photo editing software on your computer (if you’re using a PC you probably have Microsoft Digital Image Starter Edition on your PC), then you should give this site a try.  Easy to use, fast and can be ported to your Flickr account if you have one.

Arthurcropped_2   
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