I have finally been truly impressed with my BlackBerry Storm. I am in Columbus today (well, really it’s Dublin). The first thing I really needed to use my phone for was lunch.

So I brought up Poynt and searched for restaurants. I got a list of restaurants, and touched the one I wanted to eat at. Then, I was able to get directions.

I was happy enough that I used my phone to write this post.

How great it is when everything works well.  How much it sucks when something isn’t perfect.

Read the rest of this post… »

It is the start of traffic counting season in Ohio.  Each year, we get about 7 months to count the cars on the road.  With my involvement in this type of work, I hear a lot of horror stories.  First off, I wanted to discuss how these things work and how the data is used and cannot be used, and then show some of the war stories.

Traffic Counter on side of road

Read the rest of this post… »

I just saw an article today on PCWorld discussing the differences in ages between MySpace and Facebook users.  It got me thinking about the want for Government activities, particularly planning studies, to use ‘new media’ to reach out and connect to people.  As stated in the PCWorld article, Facebook has an abundance of the over-35 crowd, and MySpace has an abundance of teenagers.  If done properly, this age difference can be used to connect to BOTH of these groups.

One of the most important things when using social networking in government is keeping things current.  Nobody likes a dead page, and all-too-often project websites suffer from not being kept up-to-date.  The same thing can easily happen to a MySpace or Facebook page.

Another important thing is prompt replies to questions/etc.  People don’t want to wait several days for an answer.

Things to keep in mind:

• Anything on the Internet is searchable, indexed, and stored.
• MySpace and Facebook pages for governments or projects are public documents.  Be prepared for media requests about information, etc.
• The visual quality of such pages reflect on the government that is operating them.  They should be visually pleasing, not gaudy.  Keep animated stuff to a minimum.  Pictures should be of plans/alternatives, pictures of public meetings, renderings of alternatives, etc.

If done properly, social networking can be a great way to augment the public involvement in any planning (or related) process.

One of the local media must have been having a bout with lack of things to use the towercam for… Read the rest of this post… »

I had a problem updating a contact that made its way into my address book without an email… Read the rest of this post… »

This was originally from http://www.orangelabel.com/icons.htm… They haven’t fixed it yet, I’m not sure if they’ve even noticed, but I saw it on Twitter…

Take a look at the IE webpage

Take a look at the IE webpage.

I’ve been working at home yesterday and today due to the bad weather.  We had 4″ of snow yesterday (Tuesday 1/27/09) and it was covered by 0.5″ of ice and another 3″ of snow, which is taking down tree branches and power lines.  I took my camera outside, below are some pics. Read the rest of this post… »

Multiple row toolbar in Firefox « Codelicious. Read the rest of this post… »

I just went through the process of changing my blog, Facebook, and LinkedIn pages/profiles to all link to each other (and an added bonus, my Facebook profile also links to my Flickr page.  I’ve noticed a few things, and I’ve dropped my thoughts here. Read the rest of this post… »