keyboard for the droid

I‘m composing this post using my freedom pro keyboard on my droid. The longer I use the droid, the more I wonder what I did before I had it.

The mark of good tech is how well it integrates into your life and how it can change productivity or pleasure. While I‘m getting used to this keyboard, the overall experience is great. Short texts and even emails are easily done on then phone, but longer typing is just easier on a keyboard. I will say, the voice recognition is pretty good as well though and I used that the other day for the first time while driving. This keyboard is effective and fairly easy to set up, plus being available for under 100$.

Conference & changing plans

I was scheduled to be in Europe this coming week to speak at the ELN / informatics conference in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, I have landed in the hospital with a respiratory infection. According to my dr. who just had a scope and vacuum down my lungs, it's like someone jammed gummy worms in my lungs. Nice picture, eh? Well, needless to say, since I cannot even carry on a decent conversation, the international travel will be out as well as the speaking for the moment. He is anticipating a long recovery cycle post release so I will have to figure out the work thing as well.

In the meantime, my wife is holding things together at home and running ragged. Hopefully, I will be home soon and we will get in a smooth grove to steady things out with home and kids as well as figuring out work.

Droid X and Froyo

Sometime around 3 this morning I updated to Froyo. Very cool and worth it. I have been stalking the net a bit looking for this update with the improved performance and capabilities and right out of the gate, the screen rotation, system performance, and keyboard jump out as improvements. The upgrade was painless and reasonably quick and all my apps seemed to migrate well though with over 300, it's hard to know for sure. I have to winnow through the stack a bit to see if any died in the upgrade.

My focus now is cleaning up the device from all my testing and sorting out the apps I am using. I have downloaded a few key utilities that make a difference and I will profile that final list here when I am closer to complete.

Update on the Droid

So I got my droid and have been playing with it steadily since. I am more and more impressed with it the longer I use it. It has the capability to be a lightweight laptop replacement and more. A few features have been especially helpful and fun. The Navigation bit is one of my favorites when I travel, as it is the best integrated platform I have experienced. The droid X ties in my music (streaming or local), navigation, and phone calls into one tight experience. It pauses my music for turn by turn alerts, re-routes dynamically as well as all the other standard stuff you would expect out of a nav system.

Beyond the nav, the music and entertainment capabilities are top notch with streaming media options, a nice integrated music player and a boatload of apps to pick from. I am quite happy with Pandora and the built in media player for now as most of the time I stream my tunes. I also have a selection of local (Philly) radio stations and a few others that I occasionally use though again, Pandora usually wins.

The Droid is on its way!

I'm looking forward to the imminent arrival of my new gadget / phone! The Droid has been picked up for delivery and should arrive today or tomorrow latest. More to come, but it's looking good for arrival before I have to leave for Asia.

Boot Polishin Time

 

I was taking care of the shoes, gotta be squared away even then I suppose.

Virtual Clone Drive

I just wiped my main computer clean and am going through the process of rebuilding it. I had run out of room with 4 os selections loaded, multi booting into a couple flavors of linux and windows and it was time to start over. As a part of that, I am trying to remember all the tweaks and bits of software I need. One of the early loads is an ISO reader from Slysoft, found here. This little gem lets me treat local iso files as CD drives and speed up the process of installing my software backups from disk images.

phone ordered

I took the plunge and ordered my droid X last night! I'm really looking forward to getting it and playing with it. I'm using my dads droid while I compose this post and it's only making me more eager to get the device. The typing on the keyboard seems solid and the autocomplete seems to be the best i've used so far. Now commences the waiting. :)

Liquor Kwicker

Yep, you read that right, it's Liquor Kwicker. I have a site in Ohio I have to visit for work and I fly through the Cincinnati airport to get there. That means a hotel in the Kentucky side of town occasionally. I have traveled all over the country and never seen as high a concentration of liquor and tobacco stores as I see in Kentucky. So, they like to drink and smoke, but a DRIVE THROUGH liquor store takes that cake. It's like a McDonalds only for booze and tobacco. Sometimes it's tough to pull together enough booze in the house to really drive drunk, but by swinging by Liquor Kwicker, (Whats with the spelling?) you can make it over that sobriety hump and really tie on on!

Social Mention

A while ago I ran across a tool called Social Mention. The idea is pretty sound. You can see the description from the site below. The applicability extends across industry and makes a pretty interesting marketing research platform in it's early stage.

Social Mention is a social media search and analysis platform that aggregates user generated content from across the universe into a single stream of information.

It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time. Social Mention monitors 100+ social media properties directly including: Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Digg, Google etc.

Blackberry hour-glass

Ok - I think it's a plan to slowly tip me over the edge. :) It started innocently enough, every now and then. I would pick up my crack berry and I would have to wait to log in to my phone due to an hour glass. WAIT!! I just said "Wait to LOG INTO my PHONE". Ok, that alone is a little weird, but really not the point of this post (thanks enterprise security). The issue at hand is that the wait time seems to keep getting longer, no matter what I try. When I need to use my phone, check email, etc... I want it to WORK! Ok - I had to get that off my chest. Now, anyone have any suggestions to make the hourglass not show up as regularly?

When it works, it is a good device, but I want it to work! I am going to start carrying 2 phones, one for personal use and one for work since I have to keep the blackberry for work. I am thinking the Droid X will be the next phone. mmmmmm Droid goodness, I can't wait!

It's a slow fade

I'm sitting in the airport working, listening to my iPod and I heard this song - the message is pretty simple, but powerful and widely applicable in faith, principles, life in general.

"Slow Fade"

Be careful little eyes what you see
It's the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings
Be careful little feet where you go
For it's the little feet behind you that are sure to follow

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It's a slow fade, it's a slow fade

Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near
Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day

The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than you're thinking
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

Oh be careful little eyes what see
Oh be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love

Oh be careful little eyes what you see 

Taking over the world...

What - are you crazy??

What - are you crazy??

This from my 3 year old daughter as I lifted her to wash her hands at the sink. I guess she thought the water was a little too hot, but really, where did that response come from? When my toddlers question my sanity, I do have to wonder. Ahh they grow up so quickly. :)

Via Packets

I really enjoy my Starbucks VIA ready brew coffee and now they have gone and made it even better! For those of you who don't know, I spend a lot of time traveling for work and don't always have access to good coffee - enter stage left... VIA packets from Starbucks. They are little packets of micro ground coffee that taste as good as a brewed cup and better than most. I just saw that they now have iced coffee, just in time for summer.

Droid family

With the upcoming release of the new Motorola Droid, I am even more tempted to make the move. I have to get an official Corporate liable Blackberry, potentially replacing my current device and I have to decide if I am going to carry 2 devices to get a chance to play with the new droid platforms or if I will stick with my single corporate phone as my only device. Ahhh decisions...

Office 2010 Spell Check

I use office 2010 and rely on spell check to catch any spelling errors in my documents. I realized recently that the feature was not working since I upgraded and no matter what I tried, it would not turn on correctly. I had all the settings correct, but it turns out it was a rouge registry entry. I found the solution here: http://forums.techarena.in/ms-office-support/877476.htm.

I had to delete the registry key located at: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Proofing Tools\1.0\Override and like magic - the spell check started working again. Why on earth would that happen? Does anyone really not want spell check enabled?

iPad compliments the Kindle?

I ran across an article today about the iPad and Kindle. While you may know about the Kindle app for the iPod, iPhone and iPad (among other devices) have you thought about owning both and if you will use the Kindle with an iPad? No? Well, time to start thinking about it. :) The article in Computerworld raises that question and makes a good case for both in parallel.

I use my iPod touch with my Kindle now, to look up references and notes while reading, especially on technical or theological reading. I don't yet have the iPad, but if I did, I can imagine continuing that pattern in a deeper way. Among the other points that are raised, the readability of the Kindle vs any other device is still king. I love the Kindle's ability to vanish in your hands while using it - it becomes like a paper book, only lighter and easier, and avoids the problems typical of electronics such as heat, battery life and glare. I do like the iPod for short stints reading and to bridge the times I don't have my Kindle, but for long reading sessions, the Kindle is the best.

Read the article yourself and see what you think, and if you already have both, let me know how close the author is.

Do I get a princess?

 

The other night at our friends, her daughter caught a frog and Tommy kissed it - a very funny event to watch happen as a parent. :) He wondered what all the fuss was about!

The Kug

On our company intranet I ran across a link to the Kug

The Kug is a revolutionary new product in the world of making hot drinks. No longer have the hassle of interacting with a kettle. Boil water in your Kug to make a drink and bring it with you, and then re-heat it or make a fresh drink without the need for a kettle. Great for bringing in the car, or using at work and avoiding the 'work kettle'.

I think the idea is great - the genesis was around making life simpler / easier for people suffering with arthritis who struggled with their kettles. Clearly the concept has a much wider reach into most of our lives. There are similiar ideas on the market, but this seems to be the best execution so far.

diaspora - the new Facebook?

I use Facebook, blogs (clearly) and other social networking tools and am always interested in what's next as well as what's happening with what I have. With all the recent hoopla around Facebook privacy (subject of a coming post) it's good to see alternatives popping up that MAY get legs. I just got plugged into diaspora, described in their own words here:

What is it?

Enter your Diaspora “seed,” a personal web server that stores all of your information and shares it with your friends. Diaspora knows how to securely share (using GPG) your pictures, videos, and more. When you have a Diaspora seed of your own, you own your social graph, you have access to your information however you want, whenever you want, and you have full control of your online identity. Once we have built a solid foundation, we will make Diaspora easy to extend to facilitate any type of communication, and the possibilities will be endless.
For a little more detailed explanation, checkout this blog post.

I'm not sure how far these guys will get with this idea but conceptually it's cool and not entirely new (napster anyone?). Good luck and I'm signing up to the blog to stay informed.

Blackberry v iPhone

In today's issue of CIO, there is an article on the Blackberry v iPhone debate. Essentially the claim is that the Blackberry in all it's forms is dying (or dead depending on whom you ask) and the iPhone is the new king in town. I imagine the Android crew have an opinion on that as well - the story mentions the iPhone app store as the key to keeping the Android at bay but having used both, I think that's a weak defense. Read the article for yourself and see what you think.

Goodbye BlackBerry: Future Belongs to iPhone

The Apple iPhone changed the mobile game in less than three years. Apple continues to make improvements that resonate with consumers, who are gaining more control over technology in the enterprise. I've seen nothing from RIM that shows it can reverse this tide.
By Tom Kaneshige on Wed, May 12, 2010

The babies together

I love this stage and I hope it never goes away. This was from a couple of months ago in our driveway.

Flooring progressing - Blue wall looking good

The flooring is coming along nicely and the blue contrast wall is looking good.

Kindle for the Blackberry

It's here! Those of you (few) who have read my posts for a long time will remember my reference to this while I was waiting at the Y for my wife to finish getting ready, and looking for something to read with only my blackberry in my pocket. I have the Kindle and the iPod touch app for Kindle reading, but I am almost never without my Blackberry since it's my connection to the corporate borg... (pitiful, right?)
Now I can use my BB in a pinch to read books, picking up where I left off on one of the other apps. Well done and nicely executed. Now - to get my hands on the 3G / WiFi iPad or something in that family. ;)

Flooring started!

Our flooring install has started - an important milestone that we are eager to see completed.

Chemistry Add-in for Word

So as promised, here is the blurb on the Chemistry add in for Word. Very cool idea and I hope they include it in PowerPoint as well since so much of the work ends up there for presentation.

The Chemistry Add-in for Word makes it easier for students, chemists, and researchers to insert and modify chemical information, such as labels, formulas and 2-D depictions, from within Microsoft Office Word. In addition to authoring functionality, Chem4Word enables user denotation of inline “chemical zones,” the rendering of high-quality and print-ready visual depictions of chemical structures, and the ability to store and expose semantic-rich chemical information in a semantically rich manner.

You can head over to the MSR site and grab it here.

Office 2010 impressions

I just went through the upgrade to Office 2010 - what a journey but it seems worth it so far.

• Downloaded x86 and 64 versions last night
• looking forward to install!
• Tried to set restore point on work machine - policy lock out! (Really???)
• Start install and wait... stopped and told need SP3
• Mad hunt on M$ site for SP3 (really about 1 minute) since not a corp distro
• found and downloading.......... still downloading .........
• now extracting.............................................
• Now installing.............................................
• REALLY!!! ok - I'm patient and I can multi task to get my mind on something useful
• So the install of SP3 took a very long time and I picked up the rest of the install the following day in the office while I went to another meeting - I did a full upgrade install.
• Install completed (finally!!)

The result is a nice office experience that seems to work well. I a very pleased with Outlook and the search / threaded discussion capability. The other apps work as expected with tweaks here and there. I am going to upgrade my home machine next and that's a 64 bit machine with 6G of ram so it will be a good comparison to the 32 bit laptop install.

BioCoder - code for Biologists

While trolling through some Microsoft research projects recently I ran across two of particular interest in my current area - BioCoder, described below, and Chemistry for Word which I will cover in a later post. The BioCode concept applies programming constructs to the protocol definition process. The idea is interesting and worth exploring. The blurb below from the site summarizes it nicely and you can read more by downloading the package here.

BioCoder is a high-level programming language that enables standardization and automation of biology protocols. Our vision is to change the way that experimental methods are communicated: rather than publishing a written account of the protocols used, researchers will simply publish the code. The code can be automatically converted to human-readable steps for manual execution in the laboratory. When written as a computer program, biology protocols can be parameterized to facilitate reuse in different contexts. They can also be mapped automatically to the setup of a given laboratory, taking into account the equipment and reagents that are available.

The gulf coast of Florida

 

 

 

I took these when I was in St. Petersburg, FL which is right about where I would like to be right now come to think of it... well, that or Jamaica.

Across the Danube

 

I have a bunch of versions of this photo - I'm not sure which I like the best but I thought it a very impressive building!

Strasburg Rail Road - Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

For Tommy's birthday we went to see the trains as he is a big fan. The little ones loves the train ride and all the fun stuff in the stores - little does he know that Grandma and Grandpa also got him a Thomas the train kit for his play table! If you are at all close, the Strasburg rail is a nice day trip.

ELN Talk this summer / fall

I'm scheduled to give a talk in Amsterdam billed as "The leading conference for ELNs and Data Management strategies" at the end of the summer. The details are online at the conference website.

My talk is: Keynote Presentation: The Role Of ELNs: A Chapter In A Much Larger Story

• How do you strategically select an ELN to fit in with your company requirements?
• Outlining the importance of creating the enterprise strategy to create a seamless informatics platform
• Delving deeper into the Wyeth/Pfizer GLP ELN deployment: why was it a success and what lessons were leaned along the way

I enjoy these events as I almost never leave without great contacts and networking. Any thoughts to contribute are welcome, so feel free to get in touch with me.

Google Maps Live Traffic - Love it.

What's there to add to that one - the live traffic is a great feature when looking at a route, but today I just noticed what may be my next favorite feature - predictive traffic based on past patterns. I will be interested to see how accurate this is but I will be testing it tomorrow morning on I78 and 287 heading into Jersey. You can adjust the day and use a slider to adjust the time, and the route updates automatically.

Check it out at Google maps.

Paint going on...

 Our kitchen is slowly coming along... I pulled up almost all the tile in the foyer today. Am I ready to see this thing through? You had better believe it!! By the way - Jess took this photo with her cool new droid. I do have phone envy :)

Hello from Tommy

 

He has finally mastered the art of "Cheese!" from Roo.

Adrienne is ready to work!

 

Adrienne loves the radio earmuffs - she can't hear mommy or daddy calling and she can rock out all day!

Under Construction

 

We are in the middle of a bit of construction right now, with the kitchen and powder room completely gone. The end product will be worth the mess (I hope!) but getting there is a journey. The little ones are having fun playing in the mess and tracking dust everywhere, keeping mommy busy. This morning Tommy emptied the water cooler on the floor creating a swamp in our dining room that mixed nicely with the plaster dust to make a smooth white mud. Friday the base cabinets should be in and measurements for the counters done so that is a significant milestone we are looking forward to!

iPads and ELN's

It seems the iPad is everywhere lately, even popping up on a LinkedIn discussion on Lab Notebooks.

My opinion on this topic is essentially the same as the tablet-pc form factor. The tech is not there yet to get any real advantage in most cases, though there may be a few isolated edge cases. What I think we are waiting for is the next disruptive way of recording lab observations and tying the information flow together in a more seamless fashion. I do not see anything the iPad will make easier yet, except the type of task already relegated to the iPaq, or similar form factor which is essentially basic, situation specific, observational recordings. Now - don't get me wrong, I think it's very cool and would like to have one dropped in my lap to play with, but from a business value in the labs perspective, I think we are waiting on the killer app. (Let's just hope it's not Flash based)

heading up the mountain

I took these as I started up the mountain across the Danube, so you will see shots looking back across as I go higher. More to follow though...

 

 

 

 

More from Budapest

 

 

 

 

Lunch time in Budapest

 

While wandering around down down, I ran across this little hole in the wall cafe that looked fun. I got some lunch from a woman who spoke basically no English and me with no Hungarian. I ended up pantomiming to get what she was eating which turned out to be essentially raw bacon, onion and tomato on a baguette.It was pretty good!

Budapest - Walking around photos

 

While in Budapest, I took a bunch of photos, some of which I just ran across again and will post.

A cathedral in Budapest