I'm sitting at the gym, waiting for Jess to come out of her locker room and wishing I brought my kindle or at least my ipod with the kindle app on it. Looking around online it appears that a kindle app for the blackberry is coming soon! Sign me up. Once you move to the ebook format, the bar is moved up significantly and ubiquitous access is expected, synched to the last page read regardless of location or platform. When this happened I new amazon had really gotten to the killer app.
Rules for life - lifted from great minds around the net :)
- Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
- Don’t worry about what people think, they don’t do it very often.
- Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than standing in a garage makes you a car.
- Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
- If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before.
- Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
- A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.
- For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.
- If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
- Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
- A conscience is what hurts when all of your other parts feel so good.
- Eat well, stay fit, die anyway.
- Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it.
- No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
- A balanced diet is a muffin in each hand.
- Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
- Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
- Junk is something you’ve kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
- There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
- Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
- By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
- Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.
- Someone who thinks logically provides nice contrast to the real world.
- It ain’t the jeans that make your butt look fat.
- If you had to identify in one word the reason why the human race has not achieved it’s full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.
- There is a very fine line between ‘hobby’ and ‘mental illness.’
- People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
- You should not confuse your career with your life.
- Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
- Never lick a steak knife.
- The most destructive force in the universe is gossip.
- You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
- You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment.
- The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that deep down inside we ALL believe we are good drivers.
- Your friends love you anyway.
Travel plans
So I am sorting out my meeting schedule now, but it is looking like Monday - Friday on the road this week. Not my ideal scenario, but I am spread across 2 IS groups and 3 client groups so until that is sorted out, I am guessing this sort of thing will be happening. Time to call the travel agent and update plans again. I will be spending most of my week in Connecticut, which is not as convenient or entertaining as New York, but it will give me some time to look around possibly. Anyone have suggestions for things not to miss in New London / Groton Connecticut, keeping in mind that I will be in meetings all day and only have part of the evening free (after dark) so no suggestions for the sweeping panoramas or anything ;).
Thanksgiving was a success
My sister and her family came down for Thanksgiving this year - a great thing about which I am very happy. I rarely get to see them, and Tommy, her husband, is who my youngest boy is named after. Seeing them here was a perfect gift, even if we missed our sister Beth and her family and our parents, all of whom were in Michigan celebrating the holiday.
We started the cooking the night before and since the babies were up anyway, I got the turkey going at around 5 am, though it didn't make it into the oven until over an hour later. It was good to see the kids together. As they all grow up and head off to college, I hope we can continue getting together but I will enjoy every bit we have now! Jimmy worked but I got off early so I picked him up before they got here and we had the whole gang together again - a day worthy of Thanksgiving.
Black Friday Shopping
So we did it - we went out black Friday shopping! We typically go to Sams Club first since they usually have a few things we want, are WAY less crazy then all the other stores and have a free breakfast and coffee for the members. We got the items on our list plus my impulse purchase of the iPod touch for myself - merry Christmas me! We even avoided the larger impulse purchase of the flat screen for the basement, preferring to wait on that until after we remodel. I'm sure at some point we will cave and buy it, but let's at least get the new stand built and some reconfiguring done.
I filled my usual role at the other stores with deals - going to the checkout line to hang out and chat up all the other suckers there with me while Jess shopped for bargains. All in all, the morning was a success I suppose and we made it home in one piece with all our loot for the kids. We are really looking forward to watching the babies open their presents this year! The sense of wonder they have when they open things is amazing and such a joy to see.
On a loosely related note, (to the shopping, not the babies) I hit upon a business opportunity. A roving bar that sets up outside womens dressing rooms for the men. I think it would be a hit and we even figured out the equipment setup while shopping. Now to get a "Roving liquor license". hmmm - I think I found a snag in my plans.
Kindle repairs...
So who knew - the Kindle 2 cover from Amazon seems to be causing breakage when opened incorrectly or dropped from a low height. The day before Thanksgiving I was out and about and had my Kindle with me when surprise - it fell. Now, it only fell from waist height and onto a wood floor, safely ensconced in the leather cover. No worries, right?
This is where I was surprised to find out that I had lost the top inch or so of the display. Completely surprised and suitably dismayed, I promptly tried the go-to remedy of reboot / restart with no luck. This was followed my a flurry of internet research leading to the discovery of the common problem and the fact that Amazon seemed to be offering repairs but sometimes charging 180$ of rthe service. Sweating the situation a bit, but comforted by the pattern I found of the cover as the culprit + cover sold by Amazon = some Amazon liability, I contacted support. After an email and then follow up phone call, they are shipping me a replacement at no cost, due in the 30th along with a mailing label to ship the broken one back at no charge. Way to go Amazon! additionally, the content will transfer to the new device with no problem and in the meantime, I can read where I left off using my iPod touch and the Kindle application. Sweet integration of technolgy.
Living and dying
It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It's called living. (quoted) I am finding that the living and the watching can take on a much deeper meaning when considered in the context of dying or the review of the living in memory.
As I look back on what I have lived, I have felt again the cut of poor choices and the joy of positive experiences, once lived and then relived again and again in memory. It is with this in mind that I feel sadness over this personal chapter, knowing this will be a cut I will relive time and again. It is important to salve the memory with positive balance. Time to go find the babies and see if they are up to causing some chaos and being themselves.
Really?
The athleticism is not in doubt, it's the bug costumes, I mean seriously? You have to admire the determination (I think)!
Corporate cost cutting
Today was the big day - sort of. We heard the first of many site announcements though these will be the biggest I am sure. Turns out my client base is all on it's way out, making my role as a Business Partner a little redundant. It will be interesting to see how long things take to complete and what the transition will look like. My integration work will shift to more of a transition role I imagine and my other work will take on new importance as that will be the primary focus once the transition work is complete. Good luck all my friends in preclinical / pre-poc!
Creating eBooks
Having an eBook reader is half the fun - to get the full value, you need to be able to create your own eBooks and convert existing content to the correct format. I have spent a bit of time trolling the net to locate the best / simplest way to accomplish this. My main focus was bringing my travel info with me when on the road as well as presentations and pdf docs to review. I have settled on Mobi Pocket Creator though the Reader is a bit more simple to use.
The software allows easy creation of eBooks in multiple format and will even send the book directly to your reader for you with it's integration feature. Converting moderately complex Power Point seems to be messy though converting to pdf first does help a bit. Basically, the device I use most is the Kindle 2 and it is great for text / book format but not so great for presentations. Minor inconvenience since the screen size is small anyway. The trade off between the large size DX and the smaller Kindle 2 or Sony eBook reader we have is mainly screen size and when traveling, form factor is important. It's easier ti pack and use the smaller size, especially on airplanes or trains.
One unexpected bonus for the Mobi set was the database books you can create. Out of the box it is set up with a wine catalog and restaurant guide which is pretty cool since I do travel and enjoy both. I plan to play around with this feature and possibly make a couple of reference guides for future use.
Net-Net conversion is easy and quick with this setup though Amazon offers both a free and a pay service to convert docs with the main difference being the pay version delivers the docs over the whispernet service (very convenient for others to send docs) and the pay version requires a cable based connection and emailing documents to Amazon for conversion. If I am going that route, the Mobi suite is more convenient and offers greater control.
Gadget lifestyle
While traveling this summer, I had a funny realization - my life (especially on the road) has been taken over by electronics. I was in Europe at an airport - I think it was in Budapest on my way out of Hungary, but it may have been Germany - too many airports on that trip. I passed my backpack into the scanner and they kept running back and forth. It turns out, I had it packed too densely with electronics to scan properly. Who knew?
I have learned to rely on a few key gadgets and some new ones as well. Topping the revised new list are my kindle eBook reader and my Zune music player for entertainment, my HP Tablet PC for keeping up with all things internet and such, the Nikon D-90 for capturing a photo record of the fun and my Garmin GPS to help me find my way. My Blackberry Tour keeps me in touch and connected to the internet both on the device and with Tether mode.
Of course, for power, you need the whole assortment - the international travel adapter kit, the power supplies for the notebooks. I usually have 2 there. The charger for the camera and cables to charge the Zune, Phone and Kindle along with a universal plug, an extension cord since hotel plugs are not always convenient. For mobile power, I have an inverter with a plug that adapts to fit the car or plane.
All this gadgetry makes life a little more fun, but takes up space. I typically keep this collection and a little more in my backpack when traveling and have had to learn to pack creatively to make it fit without jamming up the xray machines. The key is modular and layers like a cake or lasagna. mmmmm speaking of food - there needs to be a few goodies in there as well. I am particularly fond of the Starbucks Via packets for a quick pick me up.
May you live in interesting times...
Life in the King household has been interesting of late! A flareup of the nagging illness, little Tommy has Pneumonia (but is recovering slowly), work is chaos and I am banking on a layoff in the near future. Through it all, things are pretty good despite the normal drama added by having teens in the house.
We cut down a bunch of trees today banking the wood against the cold winter days and colder nights. Jimmy will have a good time splitting wood for a while. :) Thanks for your help Jimmy. Ben came over to help and dropped off the splitter, Jeremy and Neil both stopped by to cut in exchange for wood and we got more done then planned.
Neil cut the stump from one of the larger trees into a toilet and was so excited about getting a photo taken with the paper on the tree toilet. I will post one if I remember. I have spent the balance of the last two weeks on the road, preparing for travel, or recovering from travel - it looks like that is the future, short and long term. The upcoming layoff / job situation will drive a bit of that I am sure. More to come on all fronts.
Thoughts to ponder
You can either take action,
or you can hang back
and hope for a miracle.
Miracles are great,
but they are
so unpredictable.
- Peter F. Drucker
The people who get on
in this world
are the people who
get up and look for the
circumstances they want,
and if they can't find them,
make them.
- George Bernard Shaw
Blackberry development
So my blackberry 8330 died a sad death at the best of times, while traveling. It is amazing how much I had come to rely on that device. I use it for online access, tether mode for my laptop, calendar, etc... I went directly to the Verizon store on returning home, and was told the device was hosed, so time to upgrade. The new device is the 9630 World Edition and so far, I am impressed and pleased. That said, I feel a strange need to play with the SDK, or at least get started with the Plazmic CDK.
A quick internet search led me to the blackberry site and their sdk. The link required registration to download but you can find it here. Once you install the base application, you need to run the update as well.
Once I get the install finished and see how it works, I will update with a new post. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed on the install since I am running Windows 7 and it is not listed as supported - probably due in part to the fact that Windows 7 has not been generally released yet.
cross posted from my digital vision site as well.
Traveling
I have been traveling a bit more lately, partly due to the merger / acquisition work I am engaged in and partly due to the need to meet with clients. This past week, I had yet another fun experience with US Scareways, spending almost 10 hours in the Philly (worst delays) airport trying to get a flight out to Burlington. The flight was delayed, delayed, and then finally canceled. Once I got through the rebook line, I found I was due to arrive in Burlington after the rental car place closed, and making it very challenging to get to my NY meetings in time. At that point with my wife's help, I got my travel agent on the line and decided to redirect to my next set of meetings in the morning rather then continue to fight the mess.
When I called my travel agent (Carlson Wagonlit), they completely straightened things out, got my no show hotel and car fees refunded and got me re booked on my new flights. I have to say, they have been THE BEST agents I have ever dealt with and I have used them numerous times in clinch plays to bail me out.
Here's to you nice agents at Carlson Wagonlit Corporate Travel! You have continually made bad experiences much more bearable - I am glad I can call you!
Love the e-Books
Recently, while traveling, I tried out our Sony eBook reader. It is a nice little device that belongs to my wife, but she shares - thanks love. The device I used was the PRS-300 in pink. Overall, there are tweaks that I would make but for my first time with an eBook reader, I was pleasantly surprised. Now for those of you who know me well, you know I have had my eye on the kindle since it came out, and now that the DX is here, I am almost at the tipping point to buy one.
Not being 100% sure about the eBook thing, my experience with the Sony has sold me. I forgot I was using e-ink and got lost in the books. I also brought along travel documents, some presentations to review and a couple of PDF documents I wanted to read. The positive is that the books read great! I am sold on that concept. The con to the Sony was that it confirmed my concern about the other media, meaning for anything other then the eBooks, it was tough.
Of course, this is why I have been waiting on the DX and it's larger screen size, so that also confirms that position as do the reviews I have been reading. Once the acquisition happens and I get my buyout, I think I may splurge on one finally.
If and when I cave and order it, I will post my impressions here.
UI Mockup
Recently, a friend of mine showed me a great UI mockup tool he has been using for application development with his team. The tool is called Balsamiq Mockups and it allows for simple UI design and discussion in a line drawing manner without all the line drawing. The added benefit is that the client is not led to believe there is working code behind a prototype mockup as is often the case with a simple forms construct.
Mounting Virtual Drives in Vista
As a long time MSDN subscriber, I regularly pull down iso files for installations on one or another of my machines - though maybe less regularly now then previously as evidenced by the fact that I just hit this particular wall on my vista desktop. Using the VCD utility and mounting the driver JIT worked great until I tried it on my vista box, where it would not load the driver. Rather then spend too much time working on a deep level solution, I turned to the net as I have deadlines to meet :)
I was happy to find a new and also free solution that works even better in Virtual Clone Drive.
Happily after install, it works like a charm and maked iso use very simple with a file association.
Linked Data
The concept of linked data is not new, but is finally hitting the tipping point for implementation where thought leaders, technology, and business drivers are coming together to bring it from theory to reality. Tim Berners-Lee gave a great talk on this topic at a TED conference. Check it out here.
I was moderating a talk at the recent AAPS conference in Seattle and one of my panelists was Randy Julian, from Indigo Biosystems. He focused his talk on the value of linked data in the pharma research space and how it can revolutionize the collaboration process. I very much enjoyed the talk and our subsequent, but brief conversation. We agreed to talk more and I had to bolt as I had meetings with Microsoft and had to catch a plane for Europe to speak at another conference. Things continued to come together with the meeting at Microsoft. While the discussion was brief, it centered around the Amalga platform and the underlying technology. The aim is very similar, in that it looks at data at the atomic level with appropriate meta data for context and just in time reassembly as needed, inferring relationships automatically. The implications for predictive and retrospective automated analysis are huge.
Later that week, I spoke at a conference in Budapest and caught a talk with Nico Adams, from Cambridge University in the UK. He talked about the Semantic Web and how it applies to the research area. We later had dinner with the larger group and talked a bit more. It is encouraging to me to see the synergy across the world, and it points to the critical mass that is building around this topic.
Adobe Photoshop CS support for NEF
Surprisingly, Photoshop CS4 does not support the RAW format from Nikon out of the box. I did discover that if you update the RAW converter here, you can then open and edit the NEF files.
One minor note on that topic - I had to manually copy the plug in to each of the plug in directories, for both 64 bit and 32 bit and restart to get it working, the install did not do it alone.
Vacation at the the Jersey Shore
We are on vacation at the Jersey shore in Sea Isle, enjoying the beach house and relaxing a bit. Of course, with 5 - 7 kids running around, relaxing is a relative term, but the sea breezes and sun help, as well as occasional visits from the Captain and crew ;). We are looking forward to the fireworks tomorrow night and then heading home Sunday night. vac
A city in decline
Budapest is a city that speaks of better days. There is some magnificent architecture and quite beautiful scenery, but most of the city seems to be slowly falling apart. The facades are peeling and crumbling in many areas, graffiti is everywhere, windows are boarded and neglect is apparent all over, from city parks to downtown office buildings. Coming in to the city was akin to passing through a war zone in many respects, with rubble from torn down buildings and vacant bloc apartments lining the road. Once in the city, there was a strange mix of intricate and beautiful architecture alongside nondescript and unimaginative concrete boxes. The level of visual pollution was also striking to me with McDonalds signs on top of what look to be historic buildings and every other combination that seems possible.
The city is not without it's charm, and the beauty is redeemable. With care and management, the city could be revived to the grandeur it had to once have. Evening brings out the sidewalk restaurants with shops and open air dining everywhere. I sat alongside the Danube and had a nice meal with a great local brew. The people I spoke with were patient with my english and generally quite nice. It is a easy to walk city, with many great sites an easy walk from one center point.
Budapest
The conference went well and I got a solid response on my talk. The morning talks all pointed toward foundational needs for deploying these solutions and set up the discussion quite well.
Today, I caught a talk from Nico Adams, of Cambridge University, regarding the Semantic Web. It was a good talk and what really got me was that this was a follow on to a great talk by Randy Julian, CEO of Indigo BioSystems, at the AAPS earlier in the week on a very similar note, and also followed on the meeting I had with Jim Karkanias at Microsoft regarding their information strategy and the thinking behind the Amalga platform. While they are all on different paths, they are headed in similar directions and the thinking trend is toward data management at the atomic level. I am looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Sunday Talk at AAPS
The talks went well Sunday for my session with Joel Usansky from Thermo, Jeff Tishler from IDBS and Randy Julian from Indigo BioSystems. The first two talks were predictably product focused, with some tie in to Ligand Binding Assays and general Bioanalytical work flow. When Randy stepped up, he led off with a slide contrasting vacuum tubes and transistors, highlighting the need for something new, as opposed to optimizing the current systems. He then went on to talk about linked data as opposed to the standard static schema architecture of our database systems. He lost a good portion of the audience as evidenced by some of the questions, but the talk was spot on and tied together several ideas talked about earlier.
I am looking forward to following up with Randy when I return from Europe to compare notes.
The Fembot Killer Duck Eye
If the fembots were killer ducks... Taken in Seattle at the City Center Park.
AAPS - Update from Seattle
The speakers dinner last night was enjoyable and informative. The challenges coming out of the ligand binding labs are the same as those faced by the rest of my clients and center around key information exchange challenges.
As a deliverable set from yesterday, the group discussed several key focus areas, several of which resonated with me.
Data exchange was a hot topic with a desire for standardized information exchange so systems could talk to each other with minimal work. There is already work in the industry on this topic and I pointed to several of the current and emerging transport standards.
Instrument and software validation and the easing of the process was a highly debated topic as it represents so much of an impact for the GLP labs. The options and discussion ranged from validation accelerator packs to FDA recognized validation standards that allow a vendor to certify, reducing the customer level validation to the 20% or less of customization or configuration.
Also discussed was the desire to have a standardized "plug and play" infrastructure for instrument hardware. This spurred a number of discussions around the implications, not the least of which is the need to implement bidirectional communication in the hardware and software layers of the instruments to make this possible. The lack of common standards to build to and a governing body to work with makes this all the more challenging. My suggestion to the group was to not take on this as an outcome, but rather take on a paper with requirements and standards recommendations, that can then be used as a foundation for discussion with the key players. We need to get on the same page with respect to what it means to have integration at the hardware and driver level before we can get to the level of discussing implementation in detail.
All in all, it was good discussion and I am looking forward to my session later today, discussing the ELN and LIMS roles in these and other areas.
Helpful tools for image work
I enjoy photography, and I like playing around in photoshop a bit so I run into a need for a few additional tools
- I need a good batch editor that can copy my RAW files from my D-90 to JPG with a high level of control.
- Meet IrfanView, the most simple, powerful FREE tool I have found.
- Knowing what fonts you have and what they look like at a glance is a huge timesaver and I looked a while for this one.
- I settled on AMP Font Viewer, and you can check it out here.
- To browse my galleries of images and launch the target images directly in photoshop, I like the integration of Windows Live photo gallery.
There are a handful more I will post about later, but it's amazing what's out there for free. I have an older version of photoshop and am looking forward to one day soon upgrading to the latest suite, but for now, this is working great. Here is the latest work in progress, I am making a poster for my son who is a Lacrosse (LAX) defense man.
I got the quote from looking around the net for lacrosse terms, and I got the Wildcat logo using a logo from one of the U13 sites as a base, then cloning it and making it vector art so I could scale it, selecting the resulting skeleton and dropping in the red fill. If I was a better free hand artist like my sister, I am sure I could have whipped something cool up, but this will do I think.
Beach house for rent!
Check out the beach house blog! It is available for rent so if you are considering Sea Isle, visit the blog and consider this location.
Surgery a Success!
We got the word that the Surgery was a Success! Tommy came through well and may come home tomorrow, while Mark had an incident with his spleen getting nicked but seems to be recovering well.
Tommy Logsdon
We got the word - barring any major complications, Tommy goes in for the transplant this week! I sure am hoping things go well. Prayers are needed - for Tommy and Mark and for the whole family.
Traveling...
Philly to Seattle, Speak at a conference, meet with people. Seattle to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Budapest. Speak at a conference, meet with people and see the city. Budapest to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Philly - home again. A lot of time in the air is in my future this month!
Testing the email interface
I just got back from a quick trip to the park to get in a little fishing and let the babies play at the park. I figured what better time than now to test the email interface for blogger!
Ontology Lookup Service
Who knew - Sourceforge supports an Ontology lookup service! Check it out here: http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ontology-lookup/
I have to dig a little more to see if there is a publicly accessible API we can hit for this - sort of like encoding a-la MEDRA.
Summer afternoon
I am sitting on my back patio as I type this, enjoying a cold drink and listening to the birds. In front of me is my backyard, with one of my wife's beautiful flower beds front and center. She has transformed our property with flower beds and gardens, while also making it a mecca for birds of all varieties.
Life is good.
I think I hear little Tommy calling so I had better respond - thankfully he has not mastered his sisters art of poo painting yet but I had better play it safe. ;)
LinkedIn Profile for Jim King
LinkedIn profile
I have been playing around with LinkedIn and looking at their API. I found a widget that provides a snapshot of my linkedIn profile so I am including it here. For those of you not in the know on LinkedIn, it is a business networking site.
Walkway for the garden
When we visited Tom and Amy, we brought home a load of stone in the truck from their property (years ago, my grandparents place). I made a little walkway / sitting area for one of Jessica's gardens.
Thought for the day... (especially fitting considering my earlier post today)
"I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
— Marilyn Monroe
life happens...
I am hoping to start feeling better soon - I got some kind of upper respiratory thing that has also settled in my chest. I have been fighting it for a week now so it will hopefully have run its course by tomorrow.
This morning Adrienne greeted me with a little surprise of her own, or maybe better said, a pile of little surprises in her crib. Seems we did not make it to her room in a timely fashion so she took it upon herself to strip her diaper and toss it over board for the sharks to snack on while she hoarded the contents, and seemed to be pondering the physics of poo while running various experiments on physical manipulation of leftovers. It's one of those briefly paralyzing moments when you wonder where to start and what is safe to touch. After a good scrubbing and laundry, things are back under control and she is right now sitting on my lap as I type this.
Ahh, the joys of parenting never end. At least they make up for the gross bits by being so wonderful at other times!
Thought for the day...
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." — Dr. Seuss
Microsoft – the integration story
Working in IT, I run into people with religious convictions all the time - software religion that is. It amazes me how often people fall into one or the other camp and are completely blinded by the "right thing" in their mind. This most often occurs with the Microsoft, Open Source, and Java camps for techs and Microsoft and Mac for many end users.
While all platforms have strengths and weaknesses, no one platform is the best fit for all use, and we should be focused more on interoperability than on justifying a platform choice.
As for Microsoft, in the enterprise it is a hard sell to unseat the giant. They own the desktop and that makes the stack so much more compelling. While any single product can likely be beat by a best of breed comparison, their greatest strength comes in their integration story. So... what's the big deal? let it be while others work on a similar story and accept that this is reality for now. Learn to work with it and let's figure out how to make our Linux and Mac machines work in this environment while alternatives are created. Collaboration is the only way to create a new stack option for seamless integration.
Visiting Tom and Amy
Gap Minder
I recently came across an interesting web application called GapMinder. It allows you to get tailored views of the world and compare a wide variety of demographic information. The summary from the site is here below.
Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.
We are a modern “museum” that helps making the world understandable, using the Internet.
I recommend a visit. It reveals the stark contrasts that we often take for granted here in the US and in other more developed countries. How does this gap (Wealth / lifespan / healthcare) shape our world view?
Thankful
Today is Tommy's first birthday - this year has flown in many ways as have the last several. Adrienne is now 2 and a little mommy and great big sister to Tommy. He is off the feeding tube and into everything which is so cool to see. I am excited to see where he goes next and so thrilled to have him - as well as the rest of our fantastic kids.
While this parenting thing is at times exhausting and often a little stressful, it is also one of the most rewarding experiences of life. Jess is working with them every day and it shows in their activities. Adrienne is using full sentences and sounds so grown up sometimes!
Life is good - we are blessed and so very thankful for our 5 amazing kids.
A simple thank you
I am wrapping up a significant project at work and I had the support of 3 admins to manage scheduling and logistics as we had a rather grueling pace for a while. I wanted to thank them with a small gift and a note, but not being the best at the soft communications, I did a quick google for thank you note tips - this one hit the spot and sounded like good general advice.
Box drums and babies
After a long day of project budgets and a long week of business travel, there is nothing like sitting on the kitchen floor with the babies and turning a cardboard box into a drum set. We had a good time, with Roo setting the rhythm.
The ELN One Vendor Approach
Having heard the story too many times, I had to write a note about the vendor / application selection process for ELN. There seems to be a prevailing thought that a monolithic, one vendor approach is the way to go, regardless of business application detail. To understand the pros and cons, let’s briefly examine the foundation of this argument.
One vendor is easier to negotiate with, allowing for greater economies of scale and commonalities in infrastructure and support. With one application, support analysts can be deployed to cover an entire business unit and with the greatly increased scope, realize the benefits of scale. In summary, a one vendor approach is an IT persons dream, right?
Oh - wait, it's not all about IT? You mean without the "Business" there would be no need for IT? Ahhhhh! Well then, that changes things a bit.
Now it's time to start thinking about fit to purpose / fit for use. There is currently no singe ELN vendor that covers all the spaces, though many make the claim. How similar is a process chemistry requirements set to a small molecule biologics work flow? How about GLP vs. Non-GLP? Discovery work flow and the wild west process management has a bit of a different set of needs than a Regulated Bioanalytical group.
In general, ELN purchases must be carefully thought out to match the needs of the users and deployed as a targeted asset, not a generalized commodity application. While it is clear you want to avoid the "one of everything" mentality we sometimes get in large pharma, we need to accept that this space is still a multi vendor play for the foreseeable future.
Frustration with vendors making claims about “knowledge management”
We have a system that can uncover all types of hidden relationship and turn your data into knowledge! It is starting to sound like a carnival hucksters line to me. Once the conversation gets underway, I start to ask a few clarifying questions and things begin to become both clearer and muddier at the same time.
It becomes clear that the claims are over hyped, and at the same time, separating the actual out of the box capability from the hype or customization becomes muddier.
Too often, these systems rely on an underlying established dictionary, specific ontology, and / or custom meta data repository. This often has to be uncovered by direct questioning, and it is critical to clarify what comes with the product vs what is custom built for my business area. How does your established dictionary and overlying ontology map to my process? What about linguistics, allowing the tool to anticipate what I need based on my query and to learn from my results? I am ok with a learning curve if I see where we are going.
Over hyping the capabilities with pre-set cases only sets up the pilot / deployment for disappointment. When users see a case that looks like magic, they expect magic for their systems. Bottom line – sell what you really have, wait to market your “vision” until you have something real. It’s ok to say, here is where we really are, out of the gate. Do not waste my, or others time with misleading claims.
Ok, i'm off the soapbox... for now.
Sleep is a fond memory
The kids have been sick the last few days and as a result not sleeping. Night before last had us dividing and conquering splitting time during the night with each baby. The telling moment for the situation came around 2 or 3am when Jess was holding Tommy who had gotten sick again and I was sitting in front with a towel to catch and clean. She looks down, back up at me and says uggghhh - too much I have vomit in my cleavage, or something to that effect. There is not much to say to that one. :)
We got them to the Dr and they have their meds and will hopefully be getting better soon. We had to take Tommy off the tube for now since he is getting sick at night no much so let's pray that does not set us back to far on the weight gain.
Pleased with the results
We had a good meeting with Pfizer today. The team was good and seemed genuinely interested in fully understanding the landscape at Wyeth. The repeatedly stated concern was that they capture sufficient detail to not leave any business users in the lurch when things went down. All in all, despite the building and meeting room shuffle, it was a productive visit. I am sure there will be many more, across many more areas, to get things fully sorted out but the process seems to be on track so far.
The announcements on organization today were also an interesting step – it looks like the executive level will get some Wyeth participation in the new organization. While the roles named were all key business folks, I think they reflect a desire to maintain the talent that lead to the acquisition in the first place. Perhaps that’s my eternal optimism surfacing again, but either way, I am feeling upbeat about the process.
The looming specter of the 20,000 projected layoffs is certainly on most everyone's mind as we go into this process, but the best way through is to focus on the solutions and while planning for the worst, look for the best. The drain of worry can become a self fulfilling prophecy if you allow it. - no extra charge for that bit of advice ;)
Headed to NY
I'm on the Accela Express, headed to NY to meet with Pfizer around our upcoming integration activities. This is a continuing dialog, involving a significant amount of information exchange and effort by a large team of people. My hope is that the effort being put into this integration will be reflected in the results, with a smooth integration of pipelines and people.
The history of these mega mergers tells a different story, with pipelines and productivity taking a hit, accompanied by a serious "Brain Drain". The stated effort is to make this one different. I am hopeful - though I am the eternal optimist while planning for the worst.
My Nephew's play
Guy Talk
I took the older 2 up to my sisters and we had a nice, albeit short, visit with my family. My nephew Jesse was in a high school play - it was a rendition of Grease. He did a great job, as did the rest of the kids. Here are some photos from the night.Heading north and living life
As I wrap up a hectic week at work, I am looking forward to seeing my nephew Jesse in a play at his school. I'm packing the 2 oldest in the truck and we are heading to Wysox with a brief stop to pick up my parents on the way. It will be great to see Amy and Tommy, and the boys and the kids always love getting together.
Jess and the youngest 3 are staying home since Austin has his game Saturday morning early and it is tough to travel right now with Tommy's IV pole, pump, etc.. I am anticipating a great time, even the drive since I will get to spend focused time with the kids which I miss. Things seem so busy lately - the merger activities at work are in full swing and I am processing another acquisition we already had in play in the UK at the same time. It's all about balance in the end. Vacation - sweet vacation, I am looking forward to you!
Hopefully, since the tests are done, we will be able to get to the transplant soon so that force a brief break from work while I recover from the donation process. That's another event I am eagerly anticipating - what is possible with our medical technologies is amazing, but the process is very onerous, especially if you feel the pressure of time at your back. I was hoping to have the surgery in process by now, but it seems to stay just out of reach for one reason or another.
Another adjustment
I'm sitting at the table, having a coffee and playing a game of cards with Jimmy and Jess, when I feel something wet on my leg... I forgot to mention, I'm also holding Tommy who is insistent he is going to help me with either my coffee or my cards. Oh - and I also forget to mention that I had just gone through the prep process for his tube, cleaning it, checking the PH, changing the diaper and so on.
So back to the story, I look down and realize my entire thigh and Tommy's lower half are soaked - arghhh. Further investigation realizes it is not the usual suspect - a faulty or over full diaper. No... it's the tube cap, once again, coming free from the confines of the tape - freeing itself from the confines of the sticky white medical tape and draining the contents of Tommy's tummy on my leg. It's like it has a mind of it's own.
You might question my taping job - no, it was magnificent, the very epitome of taping genious. Ok, that might be a stretch, but I did put a lot of tape on the valve for it to only last 5 minutes. So you can guess that Jess taped the next one once I cleaned him up, un-taped the tube from his onsie, so on and so forth and got him re-dressed.
He is now sleeping happily in his bed, getting pumped back full of very expensive calories which I really hope will make him big and strong and healthy. You just never know what to expect around here!
Deacon Home Enhancement
I have a good friend who runs a custom carpentry business called Deacon Home Enhancement. A blurb from their site summarizes it as follows.
At Deacon Home Enhancement, LLC, we specialize in the finest finished carpentry — including custom trimwork and built-ins — as well as intelligently thought out, creatively designed finished basements . We listen carefully to understand your needs, work closely with you to develop a plan, and then use our creativity and skills to deliver a finished product that is intended to exceed your expectations.
I worked with Jeff some time ago to create a web site, landing on SmugMug as the platform to build his application on due to the need for a lot of photos and long term ease of maintenance. He is happy with the results and so am I. It showcases his great work well. You can check it out here: http://www.thedeacondifference.com and let me know what you think.
Leave it in, will ya??
So - big surprise here, Tommy seems to not like having a tube stuck down his nose and taped to his face. He has pulled it out a couple of days running despite loads of creative tape work. The bright side is that he seems to like to do this in the morning which leaves an entire day free of worrying about the tube and tape! The downside is it means the bedtime routine is a little rougher as we have to stick a tube up his nose as a first step to bed time - never high on anyone's list of things to do I wouldn't think.
The valves on the tubing also get loose VERY quickly - despite taping them, we have also had 2 blowouts from them which makes a mess and sort of defeats the purpose of pumping it in... We are getting the hang of it despite these minor setbacks and working with the home care nurse on alternate strategies. Lifes a journey all about learning, right? I have to say - right now, I am as tired as I have been in a long time and I am sure Jess is right there with me, but all in all, things are still good. Tommy is doing great and so mobile. It is fun watching the little ones interact and play all the time - we are so very blessed to have such great kids.
Prepping the drip 
Ontology based data & semantic relationships
Working through a data architecture and strategy for clients recently, I had to compile some information regarding development of the landscape. This information is reflected below.
The primary components to reference are detailed in the included diagram. In this case, the ontology is clearly a piece of the stack, but not the “data” or the single UI.
The ontology is best thought of as a view of an established information set that uses concepts to define relationship. The data is then mapped onto ontology to provide a specific high value view of the data, aiding in the generation of information and knowledge. Clearly there is an assumption that as a precursor to the use of the selected ontology, significant work has gone into the process of cleaning the target data through direct manipulation or a meta data based transformation layer to manage synonym matching, etc. across sources.
Another definition, more succinct is, “Ontologies are computable conceptualisations of a knowledge domain” as defined by Nico Adams, emphasizing the transformation from data to information that can then be further acted upon.
The OWL Web Ontology Language is designed for use by applications that need to process the content of information instead of just presenting information to humans. OWL facilitates greater machine interpretability of Web content than that supported by XML, RDF, and RDF Schema (RDF-S) by providing additional vocabulary along with a formal semantics. OWL has three increasingly-expressive sublanguages: OWL Lite, OWL DL, and OWL Full. Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/
The semantic layer-cake.: (Copyright © 2008 World Wide Web Consortium, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, Keio University). All Rights Reserved. http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal
Useful links :
- W3 OWL Reference a) http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/
- Good article on Ontology implementation a) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T64-4GMB0F0-F&_user=358874&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000017638&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=358874&md5=4b5c6decc4b2f01fad8183b00aec72b1
- 3) DDI - An Ontology for Drug Discovery Investigations a) http://users.aber.ac.uk/ddq/ddi/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
- Open BioMedical Ontologies a) http://www.obofoundry.org/crit.shtml
- OWL ontology browser a) http://pellet.owldl.com/ontology-browser/
- OBO Ontology Download Matrix a) http://www.berkeleybop.org/ontologies/
- Semantic Chemistry a) http://www.semanticuniverse.com/articles-semantic-chemistry.html
Reference:Stephen P. Gardner, Ontologies and semantic data integration, Drug Discovery Today, Volume 10, Issue 14, 15 July 2005, Pages 1001-1007, ISSN 1359-6446, DOI: 10.1016/S1359-6446(05)03504-X.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6T64-4GMB0F0-F/2/f296f93f44347cfd561668ede72ac5f9)
Nico Adams, Semantic Chemistry http://www.semanticuniverse.com/articles-semantic-chemistry.html
More to come...
Another night down
We go the tube in last night with minimal fuss though Tommy was unhappy and not ready to sleep for another hour or so. I think he is struggling to adjust to the process and the tube must feel weird pumping into his stomache. Once he went to sleep, he slept well, and this morning the unhooking went well with just a little mess. We will get the hang of this soon. Tonight we are upping the quantity and rate so I hope that goes well. He does seem to tolerate it well.
Adrienne is also doing well with the whole process and is a little mother sometimes. All the kids are supportive of him and the babies in general, we are so lucky for that.
I will be posting some photos of the process soon...
Tommys NG Tube
So, we got it all hooked up and got through a night of feeding... It was not without adventure though. I have to get used to the sound of the pump when it kicks on as I am sure he does. Also - there is that little joy when we were woken from the sleep of the exhausted by a screaming pump and monitor complete with flashing light. Wow - I was so confused I did not know where to go or what to push I just wanted it to stop - auughhhh what's happening??? oh no - it's an alarm, is it bad? no - what's it say - can't read it, to small - too light - where's the off button - no can't push that, we'll loose our place in the cycle sowhaddayadowhenitsscreaminginthemiddleofthenight????
So, after that little episode, we worked together and got it straightend out and my wonderful wife settled him down for round 2.
This morning she sent me a txt - he pulled out the tube - had to see that one coming! Tonight when she gets home we put it back in and try again. We'll get the hang of it yet poor kid!
Little Tommy
We went to CHOP today and got the feeding tube training and placement. It was an experience - things went well though a little challenging. We are so fortunate that the challenges we are facing with him are so minor compared to so many of the families we see there. Now we simply need to adjust to this new reality and see how things go. We are hoping for a significant weight gain.
Old photos from my USMC days
I ran across these photos some time ago and scanned them in. I had them in a small album that I had tossed in a box. Now my son is looking to head off to join the Corps...
Zimmer and I in our barracks
The interior of one of the LAVs
An LAV (light armored vehicle) at the shop
A comm rig in the hummer
The inside of the comm shop - tech bench
My old barracks at EFTS
A perfect day
This past fall we went down to my sisters place and Tommy (my brother in law) and I spent part of the afternoon fishing before heading to dialysis. It was one of the best times I have had in a long time, and this was the pond we were on. The fish were biting, the company was great and the weather was perfect. Sometimes life gives you memories that are worth more then anything you could ever buy, and this was one of them. Dialysis seemed a rude intruder on our time, but even that was time spent together and when I see him as little as I do, I'll take what we can get. I'm looking forward to many more summer afternoons on the water.
Running an "Air Car"
I ran across a link to an interesting article today - a car that runs on air. Seems like an interesting idea to me, of course, there is a cost to generating the compressed air that has to be balanced against the elimination of traditional fuels. The article is at the HowStuffWorks site and talks through some of the challenges.
The car will only be practicle for short commutes and is focused on city driving at this point, but like all the other ideas out there, a good start.
Sick mommy
I got a text from Jess today, seems she has the stomach flu, which explains how rough she felt last night. I feel so bad for her as she has a very swollen / sore neck & upper back already from last week and being sick on top of that has got to be miserable. I came home to finish my workday from here and have been taking teleconferences while keeping babies somewhat quiet. That worked until Barney finished and now Adrienne is running laps around the first floor singing at the top of her lungs. All I could do was explain to my colleagues that I have little ones...
At least they play nicely so I can still work. Speaking of which - back to it.
Still testing - waiting on Tommy
I finished the first of the (I hope) last 2 tests needed to make the decision on the transplant. I am hoping to take care of the last one this week, based on things with little Tommy.
I just heard from his dr. and he is still not on the growth curve. I am planning to call back today to see what our options are as the voice mail from the nurse was not very helpful. If he is tracking to his own curve, but below the main curve, that should be ok. The concern is if he is not on a curve, which is where he was a month ago. Either way, a decision will be made soon and if it is the tube, we start Wednesday at Childrens Hospital. The pricing is sort of a la cart in that it breaks out for the food, hardware and help. On the bad side - it is crazy expensive, on the bright side, we sure will hit our deductible quick, even thought it's huge.
They want to do a liver biopsy if things do not straighten out there, but his white cell counts were ok so far. More to come...
So I thought it was the last phase
I really thought I was in the clear - it was the last phase of testing. I was wrong. I have a couple more tests to get through before they present our case for the transplant. It is an interesting process from an objective perspective, and an infuriating process from a subjective perspective.
There is a significant amount of rigor involved in ensuring the health of the donor and long term viability as well as the protection around coercion. I understand it from a clinical and legal point - but my emotional response is "Why can't we just get this scheduled already!!"
Hopefully we will be done in the next week and get the case presented soon, get approval and wrap this beast up!
The last phase
I'm finally in the last phase of the testing for the donation and eager to complete it. Who knew donating a kidney was so complex... I'm in danville at a hotel since I have to report for testing by 7 am and its a 2.5 hour drive from home. I'm hoping and praying things work out.
Austin makes a pass
Little Mommy
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