Thursday, May 29. 2008

Teachable Moments Courtesy of the Blogosphere

The response the "Biggest Drawing in the World" in the blogosphere (noted here at APB, with appropriate skepticism in the comments) helped get clarification (it was there, in red, yesterday) from its creator. In particular, that the drawing was not made by a suitcase holding a GPS that travelled the globe on DHL vessels. As suggested by many, GPS wouldn't work inside a suitcase inside a plane/boat. And, the paths tracked don't make any sense; some stop in the middle of the ocean. Video below.

Also this month, the Air Force withdrew, at least temporarily, an ad that included misleading narration suggesting a single strike against a single satellite could take down cell phones, crash bank machines and disable GPS navigation. Again, the blogosphere pointed out the misleading part (it'd take downing several satellites to do those things). Video below.

These are great stories for instructors to use to help students understand how technology works and to highlight that you can't believe everything you read or see in a video!


Biggest Drawing in the World


Air Force "Above All" Ad

Combatting MapSpam

Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land has an interview with Google's Director of Product Management for Local, Carter Maslan about MapSpam, that is inappropriate listings appearing in local searches. Bottom line: they are working on it. Most interesting comment:

SEL: What about cases where people want to appear in results for areas where they don't have a physical location (e.g., a "service area"). Is Google going to address that scenario?
CM: Yes, we will. We currently don't allow for service areas, but we recognize that many businesses don't have physical locations and are working to accommodate those businesses. We recommend that businesses without a physical location register themselves as a single business listing using a PO Box.

Google Gears and Location Privacy? Not Yet.

This from C|net's coverage of Google I/O - the company's developer event - specifically demos from Chris Prince, a lead Gears engineer. Recall that Gears is technology that allows Web apps to work, even when not connected to the Internet.

Gears still needs to handle privacy, though, when it comes to sharing location information with Web sites, he added. "There has to be permission for using location data. We haven't figured out the best model yet," Prince said.

Two words: Fire Eagle.

Bentley Staking Position as an Advocate for Sustainable Infrastructure

The theme for the 2008 BE Conference, a user's event sponsored by Bentley Systems, is "Best Practices for Sustainable Infrastructure." Citing just the recent catastrophic events in China and Myanmar not to mention the pressures from increased energy demands and rising cost of fuel, Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems said, "The quality of life is connected to our quality of infrastructure. The financial returns on infrastructure investments will be inexorably forthcoming. I have no doubt of the opportunities that lie before us. The first action we are taking is sharing and learning about best practices." The company is putting is money where its mouth is by setting a goal to reduce its carbon footprint by 15% by 2009 and it started with reducing corporate travel. Bentley said that its annual sales meeting was held virtually.

Keynote speaker Andrew Winston, author of "Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage," had some interesting statistics:
1. Wal-mart comprises 2% of the US GDP. It is now asking its suppliers what its "carbon footprint" is. Suppliers that are reducing their carbon footprint get prefered shelf space.
2. Banks are becoming skeptical about funding the development of new coal-fired power plants as they believe that consumers may look toward more "green" ways of reducing power consumption.
3. China wants 50% of their population to be in their "middle class" by 2020
4. Advertising dollars are driving the media to cover the green movement more aggressively as companies like BP, Wal-mart, GE and others are promoting their investment in green technologies and reducing their power consumption.
5. UPS stopped making left turns to reduce idle time at stop lights. By performing route analysis, the company now modifies its routes to do concentric circles. The result was a savings of three million gallons of gas.

[Disclosure: Bentley covered travel, hotel and food.]

Bentley Offers Company Metrics in Annual Report

In what is an unusual move for a private company but a ritual announcement at the annual BE Conference, Bentley Systems issued an annual report today. Some snippets from the report: Revenue for the year represents a 15% growth over 2006. 2007 GAP revenues are at $450M. In his press conference Greg Bentley stated that in 2008 the run rate is already showing the probability of revenues in excess of $500 Million. The company is prepared for more acquisitions and has established a $200 Million credit facility. Bentley's annual report is viewable online.

[Disclosure: Bentley covered travel, hotel and food.]

Bentley at Standstill with Autodesk Relationship

During a press conference at the BE Conference in Baltimore, Bentley Systems CEO Greg Bentley was asked about the relationship with Autodesk and if it had improved. Citing that Autodesk and Bentley have an obvious stake in interoperability, Bentley stated that the relationship is at a standstill.