Writings

But as we use the Internet for “free,” we have to remember that if we’re not paying for something, we’re not the customer. We are in fact the product being sold — or, more specifically, our data is. So here’s a tricky question: Who owns all that data?

While nothing ground breaking is in this article, it's probably one of the better summaries of the complex space around that question.

As confirmed yesterday I'm going to be presenting my Android development talk from CPOSC (with a few tweaks for the local audience) at the Poughkeepsie Chapter of the ACM this month.

Mon, Jan 17 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm (Ulrich Room, Dyson Hall, Marist College ): Poughkeepsie ACM Talk: Solar System in your Pocket – Developing Android Applications It started with a simple discussion after a local astronomy meeting trying to figure out which moons of Saturn we were looking at. This seemed like the perfect first Android application, building an astronomy simulator that would let me answer that question wherever I was. Little did I know that trying to do this would take me on a Journey through most of the major subsystems and interfaces in the Android SDK.This talk will take you along on that journey of writing your first Android application. It will touch most of the major concepts involved in mobile development for Android, and many of the interfaces you’ll need to write you first application. Most importantly it will give you a list of things *not* to do when developing for the mobile space. Sean Dague has been an open source software engineer in the IBM Linux Technology Center for the last 10 years. His spare time is split between the outdoors, amateur astronomy, and random bits of open source hacking. Dinner before the event at the Palace Diner at 6pm.

The talk will cover some of the basics of android development, focusing specifically on how it's a different programming model from what you might be used to.  I use my Where is Io application, and what I learned along the way, as a roadmap for the talk.

This picture is of the partial solar eclipse that just occurred.  That sun spot at the top of the Sun isn't a sunspot, it's the International Space Station in transit.  It crosses the surface of the sun in less than a second, so this is all about getting the math and timing right to get this shot.  Amazing stuff, which you can read more about at NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

On Wednedsay, January 5th, I'll be giving the MHVLUG lecture on Drupal.  It's been two years since I started poking at Drupal in order to overall the Poughkeepsie Farm Project website, and this talk is largely going to be about that experience, and some of the basic lessons I've learned along the way.  While there will be plenty of technical bits, covering basics of getting deep enough into a drupal project to make it interesting, there is also another interesting story about getting involved with non profits.

The talk is coming along nicely, and I'm quite excited for giving it next week.

This isn't totality, but it's just about as far as we got to see before those clouds you can see moving in blocked out the rest of it. I shot this by just holding my Canon S90 up to the eyepiece on my telescope.

Of all the things my parents gave me, one of the things I most appreciate is the love of x-country skiing.  When I tell people I grew up in Vermont, I'm often asked if I ski.  I have to give a qualified yes by saying only x-country, as some time in High School I gave up downhill because of the cost, which meant that none of my friends were doing it either.

I have no real recollection of my first time on skies, so I couldn't tell you how long I've been on skies.  I have an early memory of skiing at the Granville elementary school as part of a day of winter sports.  By that point I was comfortable snow plowing down hills, so I must have been on skies for a while before then.  While many other activities with my parents went to the way side, skiing is one that I'm typically chomping at the bit for, and I'm always looking for a snow report when I call and talk.  Some of my favorite childhood memories involve neighborhood ski parties, were a pack of 20 or so family friends would trek through the mountains, taking turns breaking trail along the way.  The parties have since passed, but we still typically get out with my parents when we visit Vermont.  Our mid winter trip is timed to give us the best chance at getting some good skiing in.

There is something magical about gliding through the quiet woods after a storm.  Once you get into a fluid motion, with a consistent glide, you almost feel like you are flying.  Susan knows that a good snow fall down here in New York means we're getting up early the next day to take advantage of the snow before the Sun does it's damage.  Our 2.5 hour outing to Fahnestock Winter Park yesterday, under really excellent conditions, may be one of my favorite memories of the winter.  That we got out skiing in December here in New York gives us pretty good odds of having at least one more ski day this year.

Here's to hoping that 2011 brings us plenty more snow in the North East so even more skiing will be in our future.

A big storm around here means getting out to Fahnestock Winter Park as soon as they open for cross country skiing.  Mornings are the best times for it, for 2 reasons: it almost always breaks freezing by noon after a storm around here, and the New York City folks roam in around noon.  Today the snow would have lasted longer, but on our last stretch back to the lodge we passed a steady stream of folks that were complaining about the snow, or their skiis, or something else, and realized it was good that we were about to be done.  I'm not sure why so many folks from NYC have the inability to appreciate a beautiful snowy day, but apparently they do.

MyTracks provided me with a great map of the ski, so here it is to share and enjoy:

From the Poughkeepsie Journal:

Meteorologist Tom Wasula said the Weather Service in Albany has not been able to confirm if the storm can officially be called a "blizzard" in Dutchess County. He said the wind sensor at Dutchess County Airport broke last night in the storm. The parameters for a blizzard include heavy or blowing snow, visibility reduced to less than a quarter-mile and wind or consistent wind gusts over 35 mph for a period of three consecutive hours, he said.

I think that if the storm breaks your wind sensor, it's safe to call it a blizzard.  Based on what we saw at 11pm last night while shoveling, this would definitely qualify.

If you are in North America, there will be a total Lunar Eclipse Tonight between 12:30am and 6am something like this is going to happen (courtesy of wikipedia):

Friends on the west coast will have slightly better times to observe, with peak happening at midnight instead of 3am.  You don't need anything special to see it, though the moon through binoculars is always an inspiring thing.