"Report and inquire" is THE universal business process.  On the shop floor or sales floor, the best available information at decision time holds value.

Intermediate processing between the reporting and inquiring, the transformations to help users make sense of raw data, is the role of information technology.

Imagine a world without paper, copiers, spreadsheets, or text documents.  How then will people report-transform-inquire to get the best available information?

I believe the business information cycle will soon look a lot like what GE is doing with mobile devices.  GE, a proven leader in the creation of high technology products, has made a clear choice for information technologies going forward.

Mobile works fantastically well for GE. In general, mobile simplifies interfaces so their workforce may focus on the task at hand. Mobile untethers users from their desks and allows them to report and inquire from any place at any time. 

The role of "an app for that" is creating the slim user interfaces to complete the TRANSFORM part of the business information cycle for specific requirements.

Transform

Old technology placed too much TRANSFORM burden on the workforce.  That was when everybody had to learn spreadsheets, word processors, databases and such.

The new challenge is making business information technology as smart as smartphones and mobile devices.  Those technologies prove that users can produce and process a lot of information with little or no training.  Moving the TRANSFORM to backend systems simplifies the end user experience.

On the backend, tech folks still do their tech things, but without burdening the workforce with fresh training requirements at each update.  An added benefit is that business communications happen faster.  Real time information reporting, compiling, and distribution displaces slow, cumbersome paper, copiers, file cabinets, and spreadsheets.  Real world business advocates could scarcely be more delighted.

 ".. seamless and easy to use for users with an extremely powerful backend.  It's up to your imagination and the possibilities are in fact endless"  Dayan Anandappa, Director, Digital Technologies and Colaboration, GE

"Speed to market is unprecedented"  Linda Boff, Global Director, Marketing Communications, GE

http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/profiles/ge/

No Internet Required

Forcing business processes to go through internet backbones is not a requirement for mobile, far from it.

Mobile simply begs for a "think different" approach, starting with a belief that the simple tech is the best tech.  High speed local wifi combined with local servers is the simplest, most reliable way of completing the report-transform-inquire process.

March, Missouri, where in wide world of sports is that?

March, MO is a location near where I grew up, with some land for sale.  It had some great hunting back in the day.

With all the great new technology, the power of the Web and the internet, what is the fastest way to research this property for hunting ground potential?  The idea is to get the details, like surrounding terrain and vegetation, drainages, houses, without wasting time driving around and hiking.

The state of Missouri has a really neat program through the university extension that goes by the acronym of CARES, the Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems.  It provides map overlays based upon the area of research. The actual mapping site runs in the http://ims.missouri.edu  domain.

The CARES site is used for many important and detailed studies of land and land use in Missouri.  In this case, it is perfect for a quick yet thorough review of a parcel of land for hunting potential.

The drawback of cares-ims, is it takes forever to traverse into the location if you don't already know the gps coordinates.  Relative to google maps, it is downright clunky for  pinpointing a location.

Google maps does a fantastic job of pinpointing a location, but does not provide the detail information available through MO CARES.

Best of Both Worlds

How cool would it be to combine the best features of both for rapid access to topology info for hunting information?  And how difficult is this to implement?

Answer?  Judge for yourself the cool and difficulty factors.

Ideally, given a lat-lon coordinate for a target, a url could be built that would zoom straight into that location in MO CARES with the data layers pre-selected simply using parameters passed in with the url.

Unfortunately, the ideal is not possible in the latest configuration.

Here is the best I have been able to conjure so far, step by step:

• Locate the target in Google Maps using the Safari web browser.  http://maps.google.com  
• In this case, I know that March, MO is closest burg
• Using the fast and simple google maps interface, zoom and pan until the center of the property in question is centered in the browser window.  In this case on Candlewood road.
• The trick, some javascript entered into the address bar of the Safari web browser
• javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));  Cut and paste everything to the left into the browser address bar, where the http://.... normally appears.
• Hit the enter key and GPS coordinates are returned quite precisely, in this case (37.50604915196867, -93.13762664794922)
• Go to http://ims.missouri.edu/moims2008/step1AOI.aspx
• Select the longitude-latitude link.
• Input the lat-lon values to about 4 or 5 significant digits
• Continue in the CARES interface to the "Select data layers" tab.
• Continue to "Verify selections" tab.
• Click the "Make Map" button. 
• Now zoom, pan, add and remove data layers to check out roads, drainages, trails, houses, topography, anything deemed important.

It becomes simple to get an idea of whether or not the property is worthy of further consideration.  Should it be deemed worthy, with a little further examination, you can determine the best locations for game cams for final verification before writing the check.

January is the best month to begin prospecting for next years monster buck.  Least vegetation, bucks still have antlers, barring incident, the animal will very likely be in that general area next fall.

In pictures:

Input the nearest known location in google maps.

Input nearest known location into google maps

Adjust the google map to center the target in google map view.

Target centered in Google map view

Paste javascript into address bar, then tap enter key to retrieve GPS coordinates

javascript in address bar returns precision lat-lon coordinates

Go to CARES site, select lat-lon entry, paste in the coordinates, CARES will not accept full precision

Enter lat-lon values to 4 or 5 places of precision

Do the rest of the CARES stuff in their interface, quite detailed analysis is possible.

CARES map with aerial photography layer

Zoom, pan, add remove layers to determine viability-potential.

View trails, drainage, neighborhood

More:

http://www.akinsrealty.com/

Apple hasn't done this - YET.  With developers already touching the edges, expect something like it to appear in the next version of iOS.  Lots of details to work out, but a pretty cool demo of the possibilities.  In short, it is possible to serve video downstream from an OS X computer to local wifi connected iDevices without need for a connection to an internet backbone.  With a little planning, it is possible to save tons of bandwidth by serving popular videos on local wifi.  A coincidental benefit is that the videos are served at the speed and reliability of local wifi.

Snow Leopard to iDevice video and display sharing on a local wifi network.  AppleTV, without an AppleTV box.  When you already have a computer with far more power than an appleTV box, use it!

Fantastic job by Clement Vasseur and the AirView app to give a decent idea of how it will work.

With AirView on the iDevice:

• Fire up the video in iTunes on the Snow Leopard machine.
• Note in the video controls an AirView icon
• Drop down the list of potential targets by clicking the AirView icon
• Select the target which must be actively running AirView
• The video replaces the AirView icon on the remote screen display

In pictures:

Viewing video on Macbook iTunes, Note AirView icon to lower right, click it to drop down available targets

AirView, drop down and select Device

When target is acquired and receiving, an icon displays in the iTunes source window.

AirView Target Device Takes over iTunes window on Source

It is possible to view the video in local iTunes, even while it is running at a different location in the video track on the remote iDevice display

Note the AirView icon to lower right of display on local

while target device is viewing the video, note the AT&T in upper left corner.

The view of the Video on the iPad, slight scaling difference

General info:

 --the videos are not synchronized

 --presumably getting decent performance for a large number of connected iDevices is limited by wifi bandwidth? 

 iDevice to iDevice sharing also.

Full video available in apfeltouch channel on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/apfeltouchNET#p/a/u/2/UER_yQGXyV8

Impromptu capture of  Command Line Session or parts thereof in OS X

I was checking out a great new app from the app store, airview by Clement Vasseur.

The basic concept is use of Apple airplay technology to display content from OS X computers or iDevices on other iDevices connected to the same local wireless network.  

How cool would it be if when I have video on my macbook, iPad, Touch, or iPhone4 that I want to show somebody, they can view it right on their own iDevice?

If anyone is going to use this app, IT MUST BE SIMPLE, essentially zero config like the iDevice to AppleTV connection.  Here is how it works:

• Your device notifies the network of availability, just like AppleTV
• I load a video on my Macbook or iDevice
• I click in the video controls to summon a list of push targets
• I click your device in the list
• The video appears on your device. <link to more on that >

It works very well.  

I was curious how Clement implemented this at the tcp/ip level.  That means a packet dump.  I didn't have time for thorough investigation at that moment, so I needed to save the results.

The classic way is open a terminal window, sudo to an account with admin privileges, run tcpdump with a pipe out to a file, make a new airview connection, close the cli, make note of the file.

As I was already in the middle of an admin command line session, why start a new one from scratch?  There is no need.

In OS X, I just ran the tcpdump in the current session, then did a cut and paste of the relevant information from the terminal window to a text file.  From the Terminal window:

• Command-A to copy entire cli session to clipboard.
• Open textedit
• Command-V to paste the cli session into the textedit window
• Save the textedit file for later review of the specifics of the tcpdump

A relevant line from the packet dump --

-08:01:40.423780 IP6 (hlim 255, next-header UDP (17) payload length: 367) doug-brethowers-ipad.local.mdns > ff02::fb.mdns: [udp sum ok] 0*- [0q] 5/0/4 Doug BrethowerM-bM-^@M-^Ys iPad._airplay._tcp.local. (Cache flush) TXT "deviceid=D8:30:62:8E:56:BC" "features=0x7" "model=iPad1,1", _services._dns-sd._udp.local. PTR _airplay._tcp.local., _airplay._tcp.local. PTR Doug BrethowerM-bM-^@M-^Ys iPad._airplay._tcp.local., Doug BrethowerM-bM-^@M-^Ys iPad._device-info._tcp.local. TXT "model=K48AP", Doug BrethowerM-bM-^@M-^Ys iPad._airplay._tcp.local. (Cache flush) SRV Doug-Brethowers-iPad.local.:50726 0 0 ar: Doug-Brethowers-iPad.local. (Cache flush) AAAA fe80::da30:62ff:fe8e:56bc, Doug-Brethowers-iPad.local. (Cache flush) A 192.168.1.101, Doug-Brethowers-iPad.local. (Cache flush) NSEC, Doug BrethowerM-bM-^@M-^Ys iPad._airplay._tcp.local. (Cache flush) NSEC (359) --

If "by your command" sounds vaguely familiar, it was the oft recited mechanical communication of Cylon warriors to their imperious leader(s) in the Battlestar Galactica TV series.

Calendars serve to illustrate the basic usage and the real time nature of eZ Publish.

When somebody calls in to schedule a resource, locate the calendar for the resource, create a new event, the calendar updates immediately for all to see.

1. If not already logged in, log in and browse to the resource, the "Snaggin" calendar in this case.

Login and browse to location of new content creation

2.  Article is the default content creation type in the drop down selector, drop it down, select "Event"

Select Content Type to Create Here

3.  With the "Event" content type displayed in the content type selector, click the "Plus" icon to create new content.

Clicking a Plus icon Creates New Content

4.  Adding an "Event" content type entails filling in information specific to an "Event", like dates and times.

Content fields are specific to type of Content to create

5. Click "Send for Publishing" button and resource is sheduled, visible for all to see in real time.

Click Send For Publishing To Commit the Resource

6. As people call in, schedule the resource.  Simple and real-time, minimizes effort, prevents confusion and double-booking. 

April is Booking Fast

7.  More powerful calendaring is available for those with Snow Leopard Server via Wiki style collaboration.  Click the image for more details.

Another Powerful Option for Resource Scheduling on Snow Leopard Server

Simple enough with the right instructions - versions current as of late December 2010.

XCode and admin Required

Requires admin login.

Requires XCode tools to gain the ability to compile open source applications. XCode OS X development software is included with every copy of OS X, but not installed by default. Version 3.2.5 of XCode was used to compile in this instance.

Get the Files

PCRE is required in the APC compile, so it must be built and installed first.

ftp://ftp.csx.cam.ac.uk/pub/software/programming/pcre/pcre-8.11.tar.gz

http://pecl.php.net/get/APC-3.1.6

Configure, Build, Install

Create a workspace to extract the files.

~/Desktop/source was used in this case

Copy the downloaded files into the source directory.

Move into the source directory, build and install PCRE:

• # tar xzf pcre-8.11.tar.gz
• # cd pcre-8.11
• # ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
• # make
• # make install

Move back up one level into the source directory, build and install APC cache:

The configure options passed in step four are all one line.

• # tar xzf APC-3.1.6.tgz
• # cd APC-3.1.6/
• # phpize
• # MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=10.6 CFLAGS="-arch x86_64 -g -Os -pipe -no-cpp-precomp" CCFLAGS="-arch x86_64 -g -Os -pipe" CXXFLAGS="-arch x86_64 -g -Os -pipe" LDFLAGS="-arch x86_64 -bind_at_load" ./configure
• # make
• # make install

When the build is complete, tell php to load and use the apc extension by adding the following line, all on one line, to php.ini which is typically found in the /etc folder

• file.extension=/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/apc.so

Restart apache and view the output of phpinfo() to verify APC cache is installed and working.

After the builds, drag the source folder to the trash to clean things up.

Hosting multiple sites on the same server, may require creating a site by site instance of APC cache by implementing a custom php.ini on site by site basis.

No bench testing or performance improvement details yet. Will get that up when time allows.

Original source for this info was Apple discussions :

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2448001

2011 promises to be amazingly better.

Pay no attention to the ads on TV and in tech shops promoting value added tech services like:

• disk defragmenting and repair
• adware, spam, spyware removal
• system tweaks to improve speed and stop crashes
• virus protection, then removal when the protection fails
• data protection and system backups

These are remnants of a dying IT infrastructure that is fading fast.  There are estimates that as much as one third of IT spending is wasted.  My experience leads me to believe the number may be higher.  We have barely begun to scratch the surface of what is possible today, while the complexities of the past remain ingrained upon the subconscious as a sort of inescapable status quo.

There is a better way that gets better all the time, and is now too good to ignore.  Build the intelligence into the machine to perform mundane procedures.  Burden technology, not people with repetitive tasks. Improve interfaces by giving people more of what they want, and less of what they don't.  Apple continues to innovate, pushing the envelope of what is possible, achieving record levels of customer satisfaction.

"our goal is to make a really breakthrough great product.. ..in every industry that we compete in.  Then to drive the cost down, while constantly making the products better at the same time. "  --  Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs October 18, 2010

The irony of the past decade is that business leaders, who should inherently believe in the ability of the free market to deliver better products, had so little confidence in the forward progress of information technology.  It was end users, consumers in the marketplace regularly voting their pocketbooks that supported a tech revolution that is just beginning to make inroads into the enterprise.  The flood gates are opening up.

2010 Landmarks

• In August, Apple reported shipping their 100 millionth touch screen device
• In October, Apple passed Microsoft to become the most valuable tech company on earth.
• Last quarter 2010, Apple was third in computer shipments, behind HP and Dell, not including iPads.
• Including iPads as consumer PC's would put Apple first in PC shipment volume for December 2010

The differences between old and new ways of information technology are many and varied.  The gap is a chasm so vast that it is impossible to describe in terms other than "you will know it when you see it".  Folllowing are a couple of quick examples.

Real World Examples of Tech Simplification

Podcast production and distribution  

Podcasting is creating, packaging and distributing video to a wide audience.  A real world example being capture of classroom lectures for distribution to student athletes who are traveling.  If there is a way of piecing this together outside the world of Apple, it is not getting much press.  Very likely that is because within the world of Apple, it is point and click simple at no great expense.

Scheduling resources online, some for public access, some for in-house use only.

The old existing way, enter resources and users into a spreadsheet, match them up, send the spreadsheet to the web devs, web devs update info as time allows, and develop and maintain a list of logins and users who are allowed to access protected content.

A wiki calendar on OS X server was used for a replacement, and removes all the above requirements.  It serves up an online calendar which works in real time, alleviating synchronization and logistics problems, eliminating the need for intermediate technologies unrelated to the task at hand, no convoluted licensing schemes required.  

Creating and maintaining a publicly accessible calendar is point and click simple.  In this case, the list of approved users were already stored in directory services, so restricting access is a simple drag and drop of the groups to the calendars.  Calendar users may view, edit, and create calendars in accordance with a designed permissions structure from any location with Web access.  

The List Goes On

To attempt to list all the simplifications would fill a book, each entry a competitive advantage for a specific application.  Cloud services combined with mobile technology is lately getting a lot of press as a way to dig information technology out of an overly complex past.  

Cloud and mobile are two historic Apple strong points.

•  Apple has served more digital media from the cloud than any other organization on earth
• Apple popularized the touch screen for mobile devices beginning in 2007.  The rest of the world is catching up, and that is a good thing.  Competition delivers better results. 

The rest of the world is catching up, and that is a good thing.  Competition, considering all the options, delivers the best results.

Resources :

Consumer Reports March 2010 --  http://www.macworld.com/article/147024/2010/03/consumer_reports_apple.html

"Four years ago, Microsoft (MSFT) pulled in nearly $6 billion more in sales than Apple (AAPL). Now Apple's is total revenue is $4.1 billion bigger than Microsoft's." - October 29, 2010 --  http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/29/jobs-is-now-bigger-than-ballmers

Apple Podcasting Home Page --  http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/podcast-producer.html

Apple Wiki Server Home Page --  http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/wiki-server.html

Automated Scheduling of meetings based upon availability of attendees  --  http://itservices.stanford.edu/service/emailcalendar/desktop/applemail/ical_schedulemtg

In continuous service since October 2009.

A two terabyte, 4 disk, Promise Raid controller, virtually silent, hooked through a Firewire 800 cable to a mini server with 1 terabyte built in.  Plug it in, turn it on.  Visit Disk Utility, minutes later, voila.

3 Terabytes in Minutes

The mini server cannot be taken seriously as a server until it offers expandable storage.

As a server, it also does not use enough electricity, 85 watts max for the server, the RAID array even less.  A standard desktop computer can suck down more juice by plugging in the power supply. 

Smartstor DS4600.  

"it uses roughly 13% of the power consumed by the average 300 watt power supply in standard computers" that is 39% of the power of a typical 100 watt incandescent light bulb. 

Also, something you just plug in, turn on, and it works is simply not suited for real server applications.

Should the day arrive when businesses in Southwest, MO comprehend the digital storage power of a big T followed by a big B, it is simple to daisy chain 6 terabytes at a time at less than $200 per terabyte.  This server farm will not soon give up the lead in Southwest, MO storage technology.

Mini Server with Firewire 800 connection to 2Tb RAID

LAMP

 -- L inux -- A pache -- M ySQL -- P HP
The LAMP  development stack is key to understanding the Web.  How nice would it be to have the full stack right on your machine, in the most natively possible form, especially on a macbook (pro) or ultraportable macbook air?

• Linux.  OS X is Unix based, already 95 percent compatible with the linux world, yet not nearly as susceptible to DSO problems.
• Apache.  System->Preferences->Sharing->Web Sharing, checkmark the box.  The base url will then be displayed as a link right there in the preferences pane.  Click the link to view your local web server root documents served by default from /LIbrary/Webserver/Documents
• MySQL.  http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/  to download an OS X binary that installs just like any other application in OS X.
• PHP.  Built in, not enabled by default.

To enable PHP in OS X, open the Terminal.app and enter:

 pico /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

then either uncomment or add this ilne

 LoadModule php5_module        libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

Then still in Terminal

 sudo apachectl restart

Then verify php is enabled by creating a 3 line text file named info.php in /Library/Webserver/Documents.

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

Then in Safari or favorite browser, go to http://localhost/info.php

A bunch of php information should display, along with Apache and MySQL info.

Any problems, http://www.entropy.ch is the most solidly knowledgeable and authoritative place to begin troubleshooting.

Less than 5 minutes start to finish to create the above using instructions below.

PNG is the default format for screen captures in recent versions of OS X.

However most image formats are supported natively.  All that is required is to tell your local machine which format you prefer for saving image files.

Switch the default screen capture format in a terminal window by entering commands like these..

The first sets capture format to gif, the second sets it to jpg.

With screencapture type set to gif, perform periodic captures after each letter or word is typed.

I sized the textedit window to a reasonable size for Web browser display, then used Cmd-Shift-4-spacebar and selected the textedit window to record each step of  progress. Do not worry about the file names at this point.

When finished with captures, review the files in Finder..

• set file ordering to display oldest to newest
• set file display style to Cover Flow
• select the first file in sequence
• click spacebar to preview it
• down arrow to move through files as preview of final animated version

Begin creating the animation by opening the last and final  GIF in the Preview app by dragging it from Finder to Preview icon in the dock.  If you start with the first file in the order, it will be moved into last position in finished product.  

Then in Preview.app View->Sidebar->Show Sidebar to open up a sidebar that acts as a hot zone for collecting the rest of the gif files.

In Finder, select all the other files to include with this animation.  Drag and drop them directly on top of the icon  for the original file in the sidebar.  Dropping them on open space in sidebar will not add them to the original.

• Down arrow through the sidebar images to preview the finished animated gif
• If anything is out of order, re-order images by dragging and dropping them to correct locations in the sidebar
• When satsified, save the finished product as a gif file.  I named mine "animated.gif"

Drag the completed product from a finder window and drop it on a browser icon in the dock.  Safari, Opera, Firefox all seem to work fine.  Verify the final version works as desired.

Place the file in a Web accessible location, like /Library/Webserver/Documents folder on the local machine, to serve it as a web page.

Thanks to Robert Harder and pantyo.com  for basics and inspiration.

 -- http://blog.iharder.net/2009/10/22/gif-create-animated-gifs-with-mac-os-x-preview-app/