Edict Incorporated

Little Yellow Birds

Andrea Austin — 9/8/2010 9:03:36 AM

Posted by Andrea Austin on 08 Sep 2010
One of the best parts about having an office building along the Clinton River/Clinton River Trail is seeing all of our little nature neighbors.

Today we had at least 23 yellow finches stop by for a visit. A perfect highlight to a hot summer day in Downtown Rochester!

Edict's Day Without Shoes

Andrea Austin — 4/12/2010 11:25:47 AM

Posted by Andrea Austin on 12 Apr 2010
On April 8th, 2010, the entire staff of Edict Incorporated participated in "One Day Without Shoes", a world-wide event fostered by Tom's Shoes.

"It really was an easy thing to do" said Andrea Austin, senior graphic developer at Edict. "Because we live and work in a safe, clean environment, the sacrifice was very little and was actually a lot of fun. However, you really do gain an appreciation for what your shoes provide: safety, warmth and the ability to go where you want, when you want. I am excited to participate in this event again next year."

One Day Without Shoes was founded to spread awareness about the impact a simple pair of shoes can have on a child’s life. Tom's Shoes' motto is to give a pair a shoes to a child in need for every pair sold.

One Day Without Shoes

Andrea Austin — 4/12/2010 11:22:40 AM

Posted by Andrea Austin on 12 Apr 2010

Edict will be particpating in "One Day Without Shoes" on April 8th. Our entire staff will be going barefoot throught the entire day. We're hoping for some nice weather that day so we can walk to the park and enjoy our lunch with our toes in the grass.

Read about the cause, created by Tom's Shoes:

"One Day Without Shoes is the day we spread awareness about the impact a simple pair of shoes can have on a child’s life. On April 8th, we ask people to go the day, part of the day or even just a few minutes, barefoot, to experience a life without shoes first-hand, and inspire others at the same time.

It’s Hard Without Shoes

Through everyday encounters with domestic poverty, we are reminded to appreciate having food and shelter, but most of us all but forget about our feet. Food, shelter, AND shoes facilitate life’s fundamentals. Imagine a life without shoes; constantly aware of the ground in front of you, suffering regular cuts and scrapes, tending to infection after each walk, and enduring not only terrain, but heat and cold.
The problem is large, but the solution is simple. Wearing shoes and practicing basic hygiene can prevent both infection and disease due to unsafe roads and contaminated soil. By imagining a life barefoot, we can all contribute to the awareness of these conditions. On April 8th, communities, campuses, organizations, and individuals are banding together to walk barefoot for One Day Without Shoes.
Take a walk with us on April 8th, 2010."

Why a Day Without Shoes?

In some developing nations, children must walk for miles to school, clean water and to seek medical help.
Cuts and sores on feet can lead to serious infection.
Often, children cannot attend school barefoot.
In Ethiopia, approximately one million people are suffering from Podoconiosis, a debilitating and disfiguring disease caused by walking barefoot in volcanic soil.
Podoconiosis is 100% preventable with basic foot hygiene and wearing shoes.

Agile Intelligence

Tor Hough — 3/24/2010 9:09:08 AM

Posted by Tor Hough on 24 Mar 2010

We are developing a platform that does lightweight intelligence management very well. You don't need to dig very deep to understand that the heavy weight all encompassing approach to intelligence is not very effective in the current environment. In saying this, we intend to take nothing away from the tools and practices employed by the intelligence community.

There is a need and a market for an agile tool set that permits a small(ish) team of intelligence professionals to do intelligence on a narrow(ish) array of subjects across a broad spectrum of sources. It is the end-to-end management of that effort that will be our ultimate accomplishment. We are as different from conventional intelligence as agile software development is from the waterfall model.

From Wikipedia on Agile software development:

The modern definition of agile software development evolved in the mid-1990s as part of a reaction against "heavyweight" methods, perceived to be typified by a heavily regulated, regimented, micro-managed use of the waterfall model of development. The processes originating from this use of the waterfall model were seen as bureaucratic, slow, demeaning, and inconsistent with the ways that software developers actually perform effective work. A case can be made that agile and iterative development methods mark a return to development practice from early in the history of software development.[3] Initially, agile methods were called "lightweight methods."

I would be in favor of re-writing this statement as though it were about agile intelligence not agile development. There are also an Agile Manifesto that could be liberally borrowed from:

Agile Intelligence Principals (Slight Modification of Original Agile Manifesto)

Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful actionable intelligence
Working positions are delivered frequently (hours and days rather than weeks)
Actionable intelligence is the principal measure of effectiveness
Even late changes in opinions are welcomed
Close, daily cooperation between policy makers and intelligence team members
Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
Teams are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
Simplicity
Self-organizing teams
Regular adaptation to changing circumstances

Innovation in Aerospace

Tor Hough — 3/3/2010 6:40:33 PM

Posted by Tor Hough on 03 Mar 2010

I had the opportunity to see a talk given by Mr. Frank Cappuccio, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. His talk was titled: “Trends in Technology and Innovation in Aerospace”. It was given as part of a two day Aviation and Aerospace Industry Manufacturing Summit sponsored by the Center for Aviation and Aerospace Leadership (CAAL) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Mr. Cappuccio’s offered interesting insights into issues related to innovation at one of our country’s leading Aviation and Aerospace design and manufacturing firms. The subject matter was so close to home that I found it difficult to take the time required to take my normal narrative notes. The following are the highlights as best I remember them:

Embrace failure. If you don’t fail occasionally you aren’t reaching far enough. Fail quickly and learn from it. Managers must not punish the failure of subordinates. In fact, good managers will protect those beneath them from the wrath of those above. This one principle is of incalculable value to anyone pushing the accepted limits in almost any endeavor. Holding on too long and refusing to admit defeat is a sin I’ve committed time and again in my own career. I’m reminded of the advice for people caught in a rip tide. Swim parallel to shore until you are out of the current and then turn back in. Simple advise and yet every year seemingly healthy and intelligent people are killed when overcome by exhaustion while swimming against the tide.

Some, perhaps not all, of our youth are lazy. (Yes I know, this is a shocking revelation! Take time to collect yourself if you must.) There is a generation of young professionals that were educated in a very different way than their predecessors. It can be argued that most don’t really get idea of hard work. Why should they, they’ve been getting trophies for participation since birth and been conditioned to know that even mediocre performance will be rewarded. I’m sure there are many other compounding factors but the basic point holds water. I’ve never heard of a great inventor being described as lazy or as possessing an over-abundant sense of entitlement.

World-wide, there are dramatically fewer Aerospace and Defense engineering programs than in earlier times. This is a particular challenge to engineers who are beginning their careers. Young engineers simply don’t have the experience or opportunities available to their predecessors. Where engineers that began their careers in the 50s, 60s and 70s might have participated in a dozen programs, an engineer today may contribute significantly to two or three at most.

The amazing variety of modeling tools available to the working engineer has weakened their basic senses. As one senior engineer puts it, “they’ve lost the feel”. Simulation and modeling are well and good but they can’t replace an intuitive sense of design. These tools are the embodiment of the current way of doing things. By their very nature, they get in the way of intuitive leaps that are the very soul of innovation.

I’m sure there was more but time and distance has robbed me of clarity. I would go out of my way to hear Mr. Cappuccio give this talk again. Cheers to CAAL for putting on an excellent program!

Financing Innovation

Tor Hough — 2/3/2010 10:32:06 AM

Posted by Tor Hough on 03 Feb 2010

I received feedback on my original post about SBIR style grants for small business lending. The discourse centered around fairness of competing for loans. I think it is intuitively obvious that we already compete for loans. The problem is, our financial industry is only capable of understanding the borrower’s needs and capabilities in terms of financial ratios. This badly distorts the outcome of the competition.

In 30 years of business, no banker has ever asked me for a business plan much less taken more than a cursory interest in what my business was. In truth, the only thing my commercial banker has ever required is my social security number and my personal guarantee. To sustain our position as a global leader, the United States absolutely must change our fundamental financial practices. We must learn to invest in innovation and capability not credit ratings.

Economic Recovery

Tor Hough — 2/2/2010 11:32:08 AM

Posted by Tor Hough on 02 Feb 2010

I know that most public discourse quickly begins to bounce off the bottom when one or more parties in the conversation oversimplify what are very complex problems. That said, it is with malice of forethought that I suggest that a significant factor in the housing bubble was an over abundance of government backed capital for mom and pop home owner. Who wouldn’t pay too much for a home when you could get zero down, interest-only mortgage? In a democratic society we are afforded the right to act in our own greedy self interest and that is exactly what we did.

So, the Markets collapse under the weight of heinous mismanagement, the pendulum swings the other direction and banks tighten up lending practices. Small business doesn’t have access to the capital required to carry it through the recovery. The proposed remedy to this problem? Provide incentives to banks to lend capital more aggressively. Isn’t this exactly where we got on the merry-go-round? It seems to me that the financial industry has proven incapable of making effective decisions with regards to risk and lending. While they are highly creative in developing new and interesting ways to package and churn debt they’ve shown almost no ability or inclination to more effectively manage the single transaction. Lending policies rely too heavily on computer models of asset valuation. Lending policies rely too heavily on computer models of individual or corporate credit worthiness.

Our company recently spent about 30 days preparing a proposal in response to a Small Business Innovative Research solicitation. The Defense Department and most other government agencies put out wish lists about 6 times a year and invite small business to propose innovative solutions to their problems. Awards are granted to companies that bring innovative ideas to the table that have technical merit and commercial appeal. Prospective participants are encouraged to submit risky innovations along with plans to mitigate the risk. It is a three phase process where performance earns you access to additional capital. Participants that compete for this business year after year are penalized for failing to commercialize their work product.

I would be far more comfortable if the Obama Administration was proposing to spend this $30B through a mechanism like SBIR. Why not expand SBIR to include state, local and non-profit organizations? Why not fund SBIR for the troubled automotive industry? What is unique and highly effective about the SBIR program is that it requires the participant to put together a 25 page proposal to back their request for funds. This process forces the “principal investigator” to spell out in detail what they expect to accomplish and how they plan to accomplish it. Risk is a welcome part of the process but it must be mitigated with appropriate strategies. How different is this from a small business administration loan application?

Much as I feel there is a critical need to do something to jump start the economy, I don’t harbor much hope that tired fiscal policies of the past will serve us very well.

Geographic Modeling

Tor Hough — 1/25/2010 2:33:31 PM

Posted by Tor Hough on 25 Jan 2010
One can only assume that over time, Google Earth, will be able to "playback" the evolution of a community as it grows. As more of a physical space is mapped into the database they should be able to let you pick a point in time and see how the community looked at date x. We've kicked this around and it seems like it would be fun to see but I can't see why anyone would pay to experience it. Waiting 25 years for something significant to happen will also be a bit of a drag. On the other hand, it does get the mind wondering on how you might populate the database without waiting.

I assume that tax records exist going back some significant number of years. The valuation associated with each parcel would provide a clue as to the use of the land. Zoning records would provide some reference as to the intended use of the land. Working from one or more of these records it would, theoretically, be possible to replay the evolution of a community over time. With clever modeling, a system such as this would be very helpful in understanding the environmental impact of development, patterns in land use, etc. I would guess that correlating watershed environmental health to the patterns of urban development would be useful to someone.

Geek Lectures

Tor Hough — 12/15/2009 9:14:01 AM

Posted by Tor Hough on 15 Dec 2009
The main purpose of the project VideoLectures.Net is to provide free and open access of a high quality video lectures presented by distinguished scholars and scientists at the most important and prominent events like conferences, summer schools, workshops and science promotional events from many fields of Science. The portal is aimed at promoting science, exchanging ideas and fostering knowledge sharing by providing high quality didactic contents not only to a scientific community but also to a general public. All lectures, accompanying documents, information and links are systematically selected and classified through the editorial process taking into account also users' comments.

The training materials are being developed within the FP5, FP6, and FP7 European Framework Programs, where the web based portal Videolectures.Net is being used as an educational platform for several EU funded research projects such as PASCAL NoE, ECOLEAD NoE, SEKT IP and different organizations, among others Xerox Parc, British Telecom, Max Planck, Fraunhofer Institute, Australian National University and Carnegie Mellon. The range of countries involved and languages used varies from Europe, USA, Taiwan, Australia, Ukraine, Russia and Brazil.

The project Videolectures.Net has started at Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia, Europe in early 2002 in synergy with the global trends and more formal efforts by the European Union in creating a Knowledge Economy and Information Society. The pilot project was started by our group where the main idea was to record and provide online a weekly section of lectures entitled "Solomon's seminars", these same lectures are being held until present time at the Department of Knowledge Technologies, JSI. Currently the portal includes mainly the contents from Information and communication technologies in particular fields of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Semantic Web and Data and Text Mining.

The portal is becoming a major reference video training material repository and dissemination channel for academic researchers all around the world. Following the ideas to network with other similar initiatives, new frameworks and plans are being prepared aiming at boosting up an e-science video reference network combining universities and research institutes that provides a qualitative stream of scientific and training programs.

The Top 10 of Everything

Andrea Austin — 12/9/2009 12:04:12 PM

Posted by Andrea Austin on 09 Dec 2009
For those of you who like Top 10 Lists, Time magazine has posted a rich collection of Top 10 lists for 2009:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/0,28757,1945379,00.html?iid=redirect-toptens#news

Edict Building Stands Out

Tor Hough — 12/4/2009 3:36:03 PM

Posted by Tor Hough on 04 Dec 2009
Google hasn't bestowed streetview level coverage on Rochester. As such, modeling the Edict building in Google Earth took a bit more engineering than it might have otherwise. All the same, Nick's efforts have paid off nicely!

Those exploring downtown Rochester in Google Earth will now find that the Edict Building stands well above the rest. We'll set our sights on the Millrace building next when mother nature gives us another blue sky day. That should be sometime in about the middle of May I think.

Crazy Cute Hats

Tor Hough — 12/4/2009 3:25:59 PM

Posted by Tor Hough on 04 Dec 2009

Mary Wright writes:

Earlier this year as a “stress reliever” I explored making wool felt and from that felt – hats. I inherited the wool fleece and hat blocks from my late sister and it seemed that the time had come to explore the process. Today the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center opened its Holiday Gallery Shop. 21 of my hats were juried into the exhibit. I am up to my ears in sudsy, hot water and lamb’s fleece felting commissioned hats for holiday gifts. Each hat is unique and, when possible, I use alpaca or sheep’s wool from Michigan flocks. My hope is that each hat evokes a smile.

Please share the photo if you know a hat person who would enjoy seeing LaGumba’s inventory. I particularly enjoy designing for infants and children. (BTW, “La Gumba” is a family nickname for my remaining sister who I have been supporting through cancer treatments this fall. I’m trying to get her interested in designing and making hats with me.)

LaGumbaDesigns@gmail.com

Click here for the latest LaGumba designs.

Runtime Privileges Affect EventLogEntry.Message Results

Paul Morin — 12/4/2009 12:00:00 AM

Posted by Paul Morin on 04 Dec 2009
When using .NETs EventLogEntry.Message property to retrieve the localized description of a Windows Event Log message you need to make sure the process executing the code has enough privileges to access the resource files that contain the event messages. Every application that uses the Windows Event Log has to register a resource file where event strings are stored. The registrations are recorded here:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\

ASP.NET 2.0.50727.0 logs its messages to the "Application" log:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\EventLog\Application\ASP.NET 2.0.50727.0

And specifies that its resource file is located in system32:

   EventMessageFile = c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_rc.dll

So when you write an application to read the application event log and it tries to process a message from ASP.NET the application has to open the aspnet_rc.dll file to read the message string for the event id you are processing. It then merges the event string from the file with the string replacement values passed in by the application that threw the error to create a localized version of the event description. If the runtime user does not have the necessary privileges to open the resource file, the message property of the EventLogEntry object will spit out something like this:

"The description for Event ID '-2147482339' in Source 'ASP.NET 2.0.50727.0' cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display the message, or you may not have permission to access them. The following information is part of the event:"

Followed by any string replacement values with absolutely no context. Depending on the event, it can be very ugly and hard to interpret.

If you're having trouble with EventLogEntry.Message not returning the same thing you see in the Event Viewer, elevate the runtime privileges of your application or give specific access to your runtime user for the resource file(s) needed for the given event sources.

The Bright Lights of Rochester

Andrea Austin — 12/2/2009 9:37:04 AM

Posted by Andrea Austin on 02 Dec 2009

Nick was able to capture the lighting of the amazing light display in Downtown Rochester.

If you haven't seen it, the entire downtown (literally) is lighted up in colorful LEDs. It's on nightly during the month of December, 6pm - Midnight.

How to Generate Random Dates and Times in Excel

Nick Gaydos — 12/1/2009 5:25:30 PM

Posted by Nick Gaydos on 01 Dec 2009
Excel has a few great functions for generating random numbers. but it has nothing as simple as RAND() built in to handle dates and times.

Here are a few ways of getting around it.

Generate a random date between two dates (A1 and B1):
=TEXT($A$1+INT(RAND()*($B$1-$A$1)),"mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss")
Generate a random time:
=RANDBETWEEN(0,1000)/1000

note: Time is just a percentage of 1, so just generate a number between 0 and 1, then convert it to a time format.
=TEXT(B4,"hh:mm:ss")
Put date (A3) and time (C3) together, but force the formatting:
=TEXT(A3+C3,"mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss")

Clever Advertising - Shiny Suds

Nick Gaydos — 11/20/2009 9:38:00 AM

Posted by Nick Gaydos on 20 Nov 2009

Shiny Suds, a ad from Method, is one of the most effective, funny commercials we've seen lately. It was made by Droga5.

Wiz-bang updates in Google Translate

Nick Gaydos — 11/18/2009 3:45:00 PM

Posted by Nick Gaydos on 18 Nov 2009
Google released some new wiz-bang features in Google Translate this week.

If you haven't used it yet, Google Translate offers machine translations between 51 different languages and will automatically translate typed text and web pages.

The "Translate" button is gone and now it translates as you type.
If you translate one of these 51 languages into English, you can listen to audio of the translation. For non-English speakers, this is a great learning tool.
Can't read Japanese? You can now "show romanization" and read phonetically!

Only in Michigan

Andrea Austin — 11/18/2009 3:16:20 PM

Posted by Andrea Austin on 18 Nov 2009
While driving down Rochester Road today, one of those big car-hauler semi trucks passed in the other direction. It was loaded with what looked like sports cars tightly hidden under protective coverings. Often times in the Detroit area, you’ll see these top secret cars being driven with only the windows exposed to protect the secrecy of the design.

I remember one time when I was very young: My parents and I were heading South on I-75 near the new Chrysler Tech Center. From seemingly out of nowhere, 5 or 6 extremely hot Dodge Vipers (each in a different color) came roaring past us, weaving in and out from one another. The Dodge Viper was not available for sale yet…these were clearly some of the first off the line and some high-powered execs had the pleasure of taking them for their maiden voyage.

This moment on Rochester Road brought to light a very special phenomenon that most people in this country, or the world for that matter, never get to see. What I have taken for granted for years is really something special: Witnessing the birth of new generations of cars and trucks, leading technologies and inventions. This moment made me smile, to be at the center of vision and creativity realized…

It Made my Day

Andrea Austin — 11/18/2009 6:49:19 AM

Posted by Andrea Austin on 18 Nov 2009
The fantastic little blog if full of one and two liners that sum up the everyday things in life that make us smile.

Readers indicate they like a post by giving it a "high five". The tag cloud is referred to as the "love cloud" and the footer indicates that the site is powered by rainbows and unicorns.

How perfectly simple and entertaining!

http://itmademyday.com

Washington DC Travel Less Expensive

Tor Hough — 11/17/2009 3:26:18 PM

Posted by Tor Hough on 17 Nov 2009
The trick is the Amtrak/MARC service from BWI to Union Station. The station at BWI is a ten minute coach (not van) ride from the terminal. Weekend fair requires an Amtrak ticket which is 26$. On weekdays, the MARC service is running and the fair is $6. The trip is about 35 minutes. Union Station in DC is on the Red Line Metro and you can get just about anywhere in DC with a short metro ride.