Turns out that my Zoo Keeper friend and I have something in common...
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20080304.html
Remember my job title - "Manager of Business Intelligence Architecture" - means that I have 7 "architects" and 18 "programmers" reporting to me.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Out of Minority Report
Remember back to the Minority Report, a Tom Cruise movie about some super-evolved humans that could predict the future and the police used this to pre-arrest criminals. This post has nothing to do with the plot of that movie, only one tiny piece of technology. In the movie, the police used a huge invisible screen that responded to some special gloves that Tom Cruise wore to control what appeared on the screen.... Not so futuristic anymore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymMTWxH3fc
This video shows off two amazing technologies. The first is a project called Photosynth, from Microsoft labs, that takes a deck of images and stiches them together into a 3D landscape. One of their examples is to pull public images of Notre Dame off the web and build those into a pretty good 3D model. The second is the amazing touchless screen from Ubiq LM3Labs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymMTWxH3fc
This video shows off two amazing technologies. The first is a project called Photosynth, from Microsoft labs, that takes a deck of images and stiches them together into a 3D landscape. One of their examples is to pull public images of Notre Dame off the web and build those into a pretty good 3D model. The second is the amazing touchless screen from Ubiq LM3Labs.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Proud of My Minister
Today, the minister of our PCUSA church preached a sermon about tolerance. It started out with some horrifying statistics about what the American culture, age 16-29, thinks about Christians:
1. Anti-Homosexual – this is toward the person not the deed – 96%
2. Judgmental – 87%
3. Hypocritical – 81%
4. Sheltered
5. Politically Motivated
6. Insecure
So, our minister preached about what it means to the future growth of the church that the "golden demographic" thinks Christians are so intolerant. I was proud to hear him raise this issue in our church of the frozen chosen. I believe that the vast majority of members of our particular congregation are open-minded, but we very much keep it to ourselves. I'm not sure that silent tolerance is a whole lot better than intolerance.
Throughout the sermon, I couldn't stop thinking about Matthew Shepard. He's the Wyoming college student that was tied to a fence and beaten to death in 1998. He was also one of my best friends from grade school to high school. I still get sick to my stomach and ferociously angry whenever I think about him being killed.
I'm proud of my parents' church in they consistently conservative state of Wyoming. For a while, they hosted the local PFLAG meetings, despite threats of violence and property damage. I'm also proud of the city of Casper, where they live, for electing an openly homosexual mayor in 2005 - another high school friend of mine, Guy Padgett.
I can also say that I'm a little more proud of my church now, too.
1. Anti-Homosexual – this is toward the person not the deed – 96%
2. Judgmental – 87%
3. Hypocritical – 81%
4. Sheltered
5. Politically Motivated
6. Insecure
So, our minister preached about what it means to the future growth of the church that the "golden demographic" thinks Christians are so intolerant. I was proud to hear him raise this issue in our church of the frozen chosen. I believe that the vast majority of members of our particular congregation are open-minded, but we very much keep it to ourselves. I'm not sure that silent tolerance is a whole lot better than intolerance.
Throughout the sermon, I couldn't stop thinking about Matthew Shepard. He's the Wyoming college student that was tied to a fence and beaten to death in 1998. He was also one of my best friends from grade school to high school. I still get sick to my stomach and ferociously angry whenever I think about him being killed.
I'm proud of my parents' church in they consistently conservative state of Wyoming. For a while, they hosted the local PFLAG meetings, despite threats of violence and property damage. I'm also proud of the city of Casper, where they live, for electing an openly homosexual mayor in 2005 - another high school friend of mine, Guy Padgett.
I can also say that I'm a little more proud of my church now, too.
What Year Do You Belong In?
My wife was 1983... I'm not sure (being younger than she) how I ended up here:
| You Belong in 1956 |
 You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in! |
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Work Tour
Last weekend my boss sent me a late night email saying: "Interested in traveling to one of our hospitals on Tuesday? We're having a meeting between our supply chain executives and Walmart about the health care industry and I can't go. I think it'd be a good opportunity."
I don't much care for Walmart, mind you, but a chance to visit with executives is almost always a good thing. Besides, I've worked here for 10 months and haven't done any actual tours of facilities. After all, my job is to sit in a back room and think up great ideas that have no practical implication!
It was a really great experience. We got to tour the route that medical supplies, equipment, and drugs take from our central distribution center (where manufacturers deliver them and we warehouse them); to a hospital inventory location; and from there to a patient bed. One of the statistics that our company quotes in presentations is that "based on the current rate of growth, spending on technology, equipment, and supplies with overtake labor expenses in the next 15 years." In a SERVICE industry like health care, that's very unusual. Usually labor far exceeds equipment in service industries.
The tour and discussion really gave me a lot of pride in the health system that I work for. I'm still only now learning about all the different ways that we're really a market leader / innovator. Still, health care is behind the times compared to other industries, but we're pushing hard to catch up.
I don't much care for Walmart, mind you, but a chance to visit with executives is almost always a good thing. Besides, I've worked here for 10 months and haven't done any actual tours of facilities. After all, my job is to sit in a back room and think up great ideas that have no practical implication!
It was a really great experience. We got to tour the route that medical supplies, equipment, and drugs take from our central distribution center (where manufacturers deliver them and we warehouse them); to a hospital inventory location; and from there to a patient bed. One of the statistics that our company quotes in presentations is that "based on the current rate of growth, spending on technology, equipment, and supplies with overtake labor expenses in the next 15 years." In a SERVICE industry like health care, that's very unusual. Usually labor far exceeds equipment in service industries.
The tour and discussion really gave me a lot of pride in the health system that I work for. I'm still only now learning about all the different ways that we're really a market leader / innovator. Still, health care is behind the times compared to other industries, but we're pushing hard to catch up.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Weather Bonk
Speaking of my work trip (note that it's 1:35 AM and I have to leave the house at 6:00 AM tomorrow) - there might be freezing rain along my route tomorrow. How do I know, exactly? WeatherBonk!
Work Trip
I got an email from my boss at 2:26 AM Sunday morning saying "there's this meeting that our supply chain group is having with some friends from Walmart on Tuesday. I was invited but really can't go. I want you to go to represent our team. Let me know if that works for you."
Now, I don't much care for Walmart as a company. I know that they're a shrewd business, but I think they compromise levels of quality and service in place of profit where I don't think it's appropriate; but our company just appointed a new board member who happens to be a former senior executive from Walmart.
It makes sense for us to learn from them - particularly because they have one of the top 2 largest commercial data warehouses in the world! (First and second place keep flopping between Walmart and AT&T.) So, the more they can say about how important data warehousing is, the better for my department.
Despite my distaste for their business practices, the meeting should be fun.
Now, I don't much care for Walmart as a company. I know that they're a shrewd business, but I think they compromise levels of quality and service in place of profit where I don't think it's appropriate; but our company just appointed a new board member who happens to be a former senior executive from Walmart.
It makes sense for us to learn from them - particularly because they have one of the top 2 largest commercial data warehouses in the world! (First and second place keep flopping between Walmart and AT&T.) So, the more they can say about how important data warehousing is, the better for my department.
Despite my distaste for their business practices, the meeting should be fun.
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