Homeward Bound

Finally headed back to Tallahassee after a very long few days on the road. I'm really looking forward to seeing Holly and the kids, as well as sleeping in my bed.
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Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone

Ready to Be Home

We are headed home from FEPA's annual conference today, after what feels like a week on the road. In reality, it was only three days, but it's enough. Before we get rolling this morning, we have one more private demo to go through, this one for our flagship software product, TEST. Yes, it's an acronym. What it stands for isn't important.

After that demo, we'll load up the minivan, and be Tallahassee bound. Can't wait to get home and see Holly and the kids.

Note the label 'Live'. I'm starting to use this for posts such as these that are 'in the moment', and not me just rambling on about whatever shiny bit I saw recently. Off to find breakfast, then a printer.

Hey, That Went Pretty Well

Our presentations on Technology and Special Needs Populations went very well this afternoon. We gave the same ninety minute talk twice today, and believe it or not the first time was much better. The first session had a larger crowd, and we were able to get more questions and comments from them, which really helps engage the audience in what you are trying to tell them. The second group was smaller, but we still had some good dialogue.

The real trick here was presenting this topic without making this into a ninety minute sales pitch for software. No one wanted to see or hear that, so we were very careful in how we developed our material to really focus on the academic and real world research our center has participated in over the past three or four years. We did a very nice job of talking in general terms, even as I moved from the broader view into a live demo of SpinReg.org.

And despite all of this, and the fact that two thirds of the presented content wasn't about SpinReg at all, just about every question we fielded at the end of each session was about the new system.

How do you balance that? I told any who talked to me about it afterward the simple truth: FEPA's conference was not a marketing tool for us, but if they would like more info, I'd take their card and we would set up a real demo at a later date. That worked very well, and I think that everyone was appreciative of the fact that we hadn't taken this opportunity to simply stand up there and hawk our wares. Even though I would have liked to.

Honestly, in my opinion SpinReg is one of the most important projects I've worked on. It addresses a clear need in emergency management, and it does it in a way that is accessible and powerful. Of course, there are always issues. We are still trying to work out a price, for starters. The center is a research center at FSU, we are not a for profit enterprise. As such we are not interested in making gobs of money and then retiring, we honestly want to provide a product that is helpful to the community. Of course, that costs money. We have to fund ongoing development, support efforts, contract management, and etc. Therefore we have to price the product at a point where it is inexpensive enough for local governments to be interested, but also where it generates enough revenue to support itself. That is not an easy task, and one that I actually fear is impossible. We'll see.

Okay, this turned into a much longer bit that I had originally intended. Stay tuned for more news on SpinReg as we move closer to a public launch.

Okay, The Presentation Looks Good

Well, it has come together nicely. We have streamlined the content and swapped the order each of us are presenting our parts and I think it does flow better now. Time to grab a sandwich (and coffee!) before we go on at 1:30pm.

Rewriting a Presentation, Three Hours Out

What could go wrong?  No, it's not a major rewrite, but still.  This is not my finest moment of preparedness.  I think I need more caffeine.

Technology and Persons with Special Needs Presentation

I recently talked about how much I enjoy writing code as of late. Well today, I'm at the Florida Emergency Preparedness Association's annual conference in Orlando, and I'm giving a presentation based on a product that I wrote. I've done this kind of work dozens of times, but I'm particularly nervous today and I'm not sure why.

We are speaking on utilizing technology to manage and register people with Special Needs. This is a important area, as these populations needs a lot of assistance from government and NGO's in case of disaster.

I'll post more when I'm done this afternoon.

Losing Myself in the Code

You know, about the only thing that I really enjoy about IT anymore is writing code.  I'm pretty good at a wide spectrum of IT tasks, from system admin and setup to application development, but the only part of it that brings me joy is writing code.  Funny, I used to be the other way around - I'd rather have spent hours on a server issue or router, but these days I find myself loathing that type or work. 

It's possible that I just enjoy what I'm better at.  I know that in the past few years I've concentrated more on development and less on admin, and I know that my admin skill set is rusty.  It might also just be that writing code is simply the best creative outlet that I have right now.

Today I am back into SPINreg.org, and I'm seriously enjoying myself.

Gmail Toolbar Update

Google has added a new toolbar to the top of Gmail.  For the most part, the functionality is the same... except for one big (and useful) new feature.  There is now a 'Move to' pulldown, that allows you to label a message, then archive it in one fell swoop.  This action mimics moving he message to a folder, which it great for folks like me who try to keep the inbox (close to) empty.

Nice and useful, Google!  I like it.

Daschle Withdraws

Former Sen. Daschle has withdrawn his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Good. Since the revelation that he had not paid over $140,000 in back taxes (which he has now paid, with interest) there has been rampant criticism (all very deserved) and speculation.

Here's my two cents (now only worth $.012 in this economy)... He should have dropped out days ago. Put simply, if I can manage to pay my taxes without (too much) griping, why can't he? This is simple, and it's a fundamental responsibility of all citizens of this country. If he can't hack that, I don't want him in my government. Period.

President Obama has promised us a new era of openness (or openisity, as President Bush might have said), and appointments such as this would just tarnish that.