Hulu Days of summer

I've become a fan of Hulu, a joint venture between NBC and Fox, over the last couple of months. It allows me to watch some shows that I would have missed during their regular schedule. Hulu is now going to be releasing something everyday till the end of summer. They have a widget that I'm going to embed to test it out below.

NWNUG Iron Python Launch Event

The guys at NWNUG are having an Iron Python Launch event on Tuesday May 13th.

They will be giving away copies of Visual Studio 2008 and possibly raffling Windows Vista Ultimate ( Must be more than 20 people in attendance) .

Link

NWOACM Social Dinner April 17th 6:30

There is going to be another social meeting with ACM. I'm planning on being there.

The Northwest Ohio chapter of ACM is holding a social gathering at Cucina di
Betto’s in Bowling Green on Thursday, April 17, 2008. We will be there
from 6:30 to 8:30 enjoying some drinks and dining. Anyone interested in
attending, please respond to this email or send one directly to chair@nwoacm.org by 8:00 pm on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 so we
can reserve enough seating at the restaurant.

Jing Screencasting

One of the coolest programs that I have run into for a while, Jing, written by TechSmith. What it does it you can capture a screen image, or capture video and audio (including microphone) of your desktop and send a url. You can use it to show users what you want them to do rather than trying to explain it on the phone or through e-mail. I recently used it and it saved me like 20 minutes of explaining. It was great. If you ever need to explain anything to anyone about computers then you will love this program. Check it out

link

Computer Recycling

Goodwill has started accepting computers for donation. They are working in cooperation with Dell Computers. They will be accepting donations at 15 donation centers areawide.

A word of caution about this is that if you are going to donate your computer with old sensitive data on it either run a data wipe program, (format isn't necessarily the best option) or remove your hard drive from the computer completely.

This is a great option for people who have an old computer that they aren't going to use anymore.

Link

MS launch event in Detroit

Looks like Microsoft is doing another launch event for Visual Studio 2008, Server 2008, and SQL server 2008. There is one in Cleveland on the 13th of March 2008 and there is one in Detroit on March 18th 2008. Looks like they are giving away copies of all the software. I think that I may have to go.

Series of posts

I've got an idea for a series of posts. I am going to cover some of my thoughts on trends dealing with computer maintenance, security also some thoughts on the internet. If there is anything that you would like to know about feel free to ask. I'll try to cover any topic that I feel I have a relatively good amount of knowledge about.

NWOACM Social Dinner

The Northwest Ohio chapter of ACM is holding a social gathering at Cucina di Betto’s in Bowling Green on Thursday, February 21, 2008. They will be there from 6:30 to 8:30 enjoying some drinks and dining. Anyone interested in attending, please RSVP to chair at nwoacm.org by 8:00 pm on Wednesday, February 20, 2008 so they can reserve enough seating at the restaurant.

Topic: Whatever suits the mood
Date: February 21, 2008
Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Where: Cucina di Betto, 121 S. Main St., Bowling Green, OH, 43402

Yahoo! Mobile Platform

I have to admit that I've always had a soft spot for Yahoo. I use their e-mail service for my personal e-mail, I use flickr for photo sharing, and del.icio.us for keeping and sharing bookmarks, and Upcoming to post events online. They have a mobile service that lets you do web searches, check e-mail, maps and more.

They have launched a 3rd party platform for developers that allows you to add widgets to their mobile service. You can do something as simple just attach a RSS feed or you can write an XML based application. You do have to use their simplified markup language called Blueprint. It seems pretty straight forward. I'm kind of tempted to write something for it. Unfortunately I don't have a mobile data plan so I wouldn't be able to test it but I seems easy enough you could probably throw something together in a matter of a couple of hours. MySpace is launching a widget that will allow you to post and see your friends moods, browse photos, and send messages.

One of the benefits of this is that Yahoo wrote the platform which works on many different types of cell phones so you don't have to write your application for every different type of phone.
Link

Hand bell hero

I found this flash game, "Hand Bell Hero" it is very similar to guitar hero and it is played with your key board. You get to play Christmas songs. Have fun.

Link

Demolition Lately

In my travels back and forth from work lately I've been noticing a lot of demolition. In the picture that I snapped they were knocking down a building behind Sanger Branch Library. I think it was a school or something.

Along my route to work I noticed 2 different buildings get knocked down. One a Grave marker seller or something and an old bar or store. Hopefully these are developments happening rather than just buildings falling apart.

I also noticed in the old west end quite a few houses that either were damaged or caught fire that look like they have been boarded up and probably will get knocked down eventually. It seems like a shame since many of those houses are beautiful Victorians.

Also there is the destruction of the old Jeep Plant. It looks like they have gotten rid of a lot of that. And as some of you know they are leaving one of the smoke stacks up as a reminder of the old factory.

You also have the demolition of the old arena and the demolition of the old Club Bijou who moved out to Byrne from their old N. Superior location for the new arena. Which you can see the progress of the construction of the new Arena here. I'm looking forward to this Arena I think that it will help liven up the downtown scene a little. Plus I have a passing interest in hockey.

Eventually there will be the demolition of the buildings that are along the river on the East Side of the River near Downtown for the Marina District.

I just thought that it was interesting how many buildings have been demolished lately. Some for progress some we will have to see about.

Update: I found an article on "The Blade's" web site. That covered the same thing. Turns out one of the buildings was a motorcycle bar. Link

NWOACM Social Gathering

The guys at the NWOACM are having a get together at Cucina di Betto in Bolwing Green, OH on Thursday, October 18, 2007. This gathering will be from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm and will be open to any ACM member and their guests.

r.s.v.p. to chair AT nwoacm DOT org .

I'll try to make it. Can't say yet.

TARTA to offer free "Family Learning Loop"

I received this in the mail this morning and I thought that it was interesting. TARTA Busses are offering a free trip around to area attractions including The Toledo Museum of Art, Zoo, COSI, the Main Branch of the Toledo Public Library On July 28th. Link

MS Silverlight presentation at NWNUG

Josh Holmes is going to be presenting on Microsoft's new multi-platform plug-in Silverlight at the NWNUG Meeting on Tuesday the 15th which is tomorrow at 6:00 PM at the HCR Manorcare building located at:

333 North Summit St.
Toledo, OH 43607

Silverlight is one of Microsoft's latest technologies. It is still in beta but from what I've seen it is pretty cool. They talked a lot about it at the Mix 07 conference. If you want more info about Silverlight go here.

RGP gets $3.2 Million in grants

Northwest Ohio gets another shot of money from the state throgh the State Entrepreneurial Signature Program.

The $3.2 million will be used to establish a business grant called Ignite, which will fund $50,000 grants to assist and support early-stage businesses, according to Steve Weathers, president and CEO of the RGP. The original grant is being used to create Rocket Ventures, a nonprofit organization whose sole focus will be to execute the plan. The remaining $6 million will be used to capitalize a pre-seed investment fund.

It looks like in order to get the money they will have to raise $1.6 million to match the state's money.

I hope that these injections of money really help the area.

Link

Day of .NET in Ann Arbor

I heard about the Day of .Net in Ann Arbor Link from the good folks at the Northwest Ohio .Net User Group

I'm going to try and make it.

Happy Earth Day

It is Earth Day again. There has been a lot of talk lately about climate change and going green.

There is information all over the place when it comes to going green. If you like watching TV then go to the Earth Day Network TV. They have some interesting information about alternative fuels, going green and some other environmental information. Some of their stuff is kind of alarmist but I feel that the issue is very important. Taking what the scientists who study the Earth's Climate are saying things could make a change for the worse here on Earth.

There are so many ways that we are damaging our environment but I think that the most interesting way that we can reduce the impact that we have on our environment is that we can seek different forms of energy production. We have the First Solar manufacturing plant in Perrysburg. There are 4 wind turbines in Bowling Green. There is also a web site about renewable energy in Ohio.

TARTA is participating in a government funded study by driving biodiesel buses.

Also to see what what the government thinks about the environment you can go to the Ohio EPA

I don't know much about them but I thought that I'd mention if you would like to become active the environmental action go to Environment Ohio. I'm sure that there are some local environmental groups but I couldn't find any with a simple Google search.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Earth Day.

Walk about my neighborhood part 2

The second interesting part of my walk around my neighborhood was when I went into the Ottawa Park. I found out that there is a very interesting amphitheater in the park. It is just screaming for a show to be performed in it. maybe some live musical performances or a play. I just wonder if anyone knows about it.






I noticed that there was a fallen tree in the amphitheater. I hope they clean it up soon.






There was a small group of University of Toledo students going around and cleaning up around the park. I stopped for a while and helped out. Unfortunately due to my terrible memory I have forgotten their names and the name of the organization they are members. (please forgive me) If you ladies happen to stop by and read the post then please let me know and I'll fix it. I think it is wonderful that some of the student in the area are contributing to the area surrounding the university.

Walk about my neighborhood.

Today I took a walk around the neighborhood usually I just stick to walking around my house but today I felt like walking along Central and Monroe.

There are a couple of interesting looking buildings along the way. There were two major surprises along the way. First I looked around a very interesting almost abandoned building on the corner of Monroe and Central. I've been fascinated with this building since I moved into the area. It actually has a lot of architecturally interesting features. What surprised me was when I looked into the window of the once "Doctor's Inn" The inside actually looked very nice and respectable.


The Front side of the "The Doctor's Inn"

The Back Door to "The Doctor's Inn"




A Peek inside "The Doctor's Inn"




The font of the Building


I think that this building has suffered from poor accessibility There is no way of turning into the building going East along Central. Additionally there is no way to park in the front which used to be a feature of the building as you will see later. But due to traffic streamlining the front parking has been eliminated. Though as a driver I think it is great that it is so easy to drive around Toledo I think that it is one of it's downfalls as well. People are too busy going where their going they don't have time to look around themselves. I think with a couple of modifications this intersection could be a more desirable place to stick around.

I found this picture of the same spot from the 1930s in the book "Images of America Toledo A history in architecture 1914 to Century's End. By William D Speck which is an interesting read.


Click image above for a larger image

More in the next post...

Playing Darts with cars.

Totally entertaining! I love that they are shooting cars with a gas powered gun into a giant dart board.

link