The Responsibilities of Nice
In March I decided to try "nice".
For almost three years, I had come into my office complex, flashed my access badge to the security guards and trundled up to my floor. Maybe a nod, maybe a hello, but no real personal connection between me and the guards. Nothing mean, nothing nasty, pleasant enough even. Just not nice.
Beginning on March 1 I introduced myself to the guards. "Hi, I've walked by you for the last 30 months and I don't know your name or anything about you. My name is Brent". In that manner, I met Steven, Charles, Jody and Martin and now every time I see them, we exchange more than just a hello. Sure, we probably talk about the weather or "hey, its Friday!" but that's something.
A small step, but a nice one.
Except when it isn't. Sometimes, I just don't want to talk to anyone (especially before coffee). But now, commitments exist (explicit or implied): I must exchange pleasantries with Steven, Charles, Jody or Martin. Not that I would be mean, not that I would be nasty. Just non-communicative. And that is the Responsibility of Nice: making or maintaining a connection, no matter how superficial, even when I'd rather do something else.
Posted at 08:13AM Apr 02, 2010 by schnee in General |
American Politics, Redux, Redux
I have a dataset and I'm not afraid to use it. Over and over. Ad nauseam.
Two more quick riffs on the Legislative timelines (part one, part two). I decided to ignore the third parties and independents (because I'm an American, dammit - that's what we do!) and take a closer look at how the two dominant parties (Democratic and Republican) relate. I flipped the Democrats below the timeline so as to have a field of red and a field of blue. I also added decade markers to the timeline.
Senate
House
Both visualizations show initial Republican activity followed by a period of less activity (more pronounced in the Senate). Then, around 1860, the Republican party comes back to stay.
- 1860 - "the Party of Abraham Lincoln" indeed
- I'm guessing that the Republican party of the early 1800s has little in common with the latter incarnation. But I'm no Political Science / History major.
(there's a story here, leading all the way to Liz Claiborne - yes, THAT Liz Claiborne)
The two parties firmly establish themselves as the status quo in the 1880s and America has had them ever since. The 1930s (the Great Depression) shows a significant number of Democrats (in the Senate) launching their arcs but then in the 1940s (post WWII), the Republicans seem to answer.
The visualizations do not show the number of Legislators that "share an arc" - it is not possible to look at an arc and determine if it represents more than one Legislator. Further riffs on the viz may do this.
Posted at 09:15AM Feb 24, 2010 by schnee in General |
American Politics, Redux
Visualizing the length of time that US Senators spend in office exposed some not-altogether unexpected details: Senators are serving longer. But what about the men and women who serve in the US House of Representatives?
The viz shows pretty much the same obvious conclusion: more Representatives hold office for longer as the United States gets older. Some notes about this data:
- Approximately 2700 Legislators are represented, which I don't believe is the complete list, but the complete list may not exist. That's too bad.
- The data I found has a minimum resolution to the year, e.g. '(1865-1867)'. Inter-session appointments are thereby masked, as are the specific dates of service. To simplify the data a bit, I assumed that Representatives served from Jan 1 on the first year to Dec 31 on the last year and trusted the Law of Large Numbers to smooth over any lies that may tell.
The simplification in the 2nd note reveals a couple of nice things:
- The striations are more easily seen. 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-term Reps are identifiable
- Party Revolutions stand out
Posted at 03:11PM Feb 22, 2010 by schnee in General | Comments[1]
The Decline of American Politics
The Founding Fathers created the United States with the concept of citizen servants in mind. Men (originally, and land-owners at that) would represent constituents for a time and then return to their lives.
After being elected to two terms of the Presidency, George Washington decided to not run again, not wanting to create a democratic monarchy. Soon, the government codified Presidential Term Limits in the US Constitution. Those term limits never trickled down to the Senate or the House.
This figure (pops out to a much larger version) shows the durations of all the men and women who, as of Feb 20, 2010, have ever served as a Senator of the United States. The x-axis begins on (anyone? anyone?) March 4, 1789 with 21 Senators launching their arcs. The x-axis scales appropriately so the lengths of the arcs are proportional to the actual duration of the Senators' length in office. The height is related to the length of the arc.
The right end of the image shows several arcs cut off in the middle. As I cannot predict the future, I decided that the durations of sitting Senators should be twice the time-served. Unrealistic, since that predicts that Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) will serve for over 100 years. And, since he is over ninety, serving an additional 50+ years puts him at over 140 years old when he retires. While I wish him a long and healthy life, this seems unreasonable. The flip-side is likely true as well - I suspect Scott Brown will serve a bit longer than 34 days.
This image assumes that currently sitting Senators will not serve past the current Legislative Session (ends on Jan 3, 2011). Unrealistic as well, but at least not leading to Methuselaian Senators.
One can see that over time, the heights of the arc have increased as Senators serve more and more terms. The next image shows a crop of the larger image which reveals vertical plateaus, corresponding to one-, two-, three-, and four-term Senators.
Finally, I wanted to see if Party Affiliation shows anything interesting.
Red is Republican. Blue is Democrat. Black is Other (while historically relevant, coloring the "American (Know-Nothing)" and the "Farmer Alliance" parties doesn't seem useful) . We've polarized into a two-party system (no duh) over time, and the visualization shows a Democratic bias to serving longer term at the moment, but I haven't performed any analysis to draw any definite conclusions. Similar breakdowns are possible: state or region (North, South, South West, etc) come to mind, but weren't created.
The electoral cycle becomes evident on the bottom of the time line - the arcs tend to begin and end on concentrated points which are probably 2 years apart (1/3 of the Senate is elected every two years). Random data sets may not show this periodicity: employment duration at a company, call-center call times, and engineering compile times would all likely reveal different patterns. However, some trends may emerge if, for example, companies instituted retention policies or made a concerted effort to reduce compile times.
I extracted the base data from the PDF file located on the US Senate Art & History site. The author of this data did not make it easy to extract, but fortunately, I know a thing or two about programming. A few hours of Java hacking later and I created a little application that parses the textual data and outputs drawing commands used by ImageMagick to create the actual image.
Information is Beautiful inspired the visualization. I find this site well-worth the time to read.
The images are hosted on Flickr and are licensed under the Creative Commons "Attribution" license. Various sizes of the images are available at Flickr.
Posted at 05:24PM Feb 20, 2010 by schnee in General | Comments[1]
Who Are You
Who are you? Who am I? I intuitively know the answers to these questions - I'm me, you're you - but how does that intuition translate online?
Social Networking
I have about 140 friends on Facebook, a number slightly more than average, which I find surprising (I'm of a 'certain age' and I don't think I'm all that promiscuous). Using the TouchGraph Photos application, I can see my social graph:
Each of those 140 or so nodes knows me in some manner. Many of them I know from the offline world - I drank beer with them last week or drank chocolate milk with them yesteryear. Some of them (the blue nodes at the bottom), I "imported" from some online photography activities. The point is that I have a relationship with each of my nodes outside of Facebook. Ask any of them if they know "Brent Schneeman" and they are likely to look around nervously and then look for the nearest exit. After that, they'll likely admit that they have some relationship with me. My social graph connects to my real world, and I suspect than many social graphs do the same.
My Twitter social graph looks a bit different:
I tend to not use Twitter all that much - I can't quite figure it out. But there it is. I get the feeling that Facebook is more conversational in nature - relationships are maintained - where Twitter is more unidirectional - a status is sent an people may or may not read it. Conversations happen on Twitter, but I find Facebook more natural. That said, my Twitter account represents me in some way.
Financial Services
In addition to social networking, I actually shop online. I use PayPal frequently (disclosure - they employ me) and maintain an active account there. I am a Verified User, which means that I've added a bank account to the service. This "increase[s] trust and safety in [the PayPal] community" since "financial institutions screen their account holders". I actually have two financial instruments associated with PayPal: the aforementioned bank account and a credit card. I like to think that define my identify with PayPal by use of a "security key" (login required), a little device that I carry around which is required to access my account. I don't know if that actually helps with my identity, but since I'm the only one with my key, it seems like it does.
Who Am I?
I'm not sure if social networking or financial services provide the more authoritative answer to my online identity. Currently, it seems as if the financial identity is more trustworthy, as it is grounded in actual "real-world" financial instruments. But that's not the only way my identity works in the the physical world. Sure, social security numbers, bank accounts, etc are all help to legally establish my identity. However, I am also some guy who invites neighbors over, coaches basketball, drinks beer with friends, ... - "who I am" has a social component.
Facebook and Twitter certainly know this. I suspect that they are working on mechanisms to provide "Identity Scores" based on social graphs. My score would essentially be composed of 140 people saying "yeah, that's Brent". As I pointed out, I have relationships established with most of those people outside of Facebook, which could be a component of the Identity Score, if it could somehow be measured.
Can these two approaches to Identity (e.g. social, financial) be merged somehow? Maybe via something like OpenID? That seems like a idea worth exploring - one Identity merging many. I know of one attempt to establish Identity based on reputation - maybe my Whuffie Bank balance becomes my (social) Identity Score.
Who am I? I'm not sure.
Posted at 11:29AM Feb 15, 2010 by schnee in General |
2009 Year in Review
[Reprinted from the Christmas Letter]
As 2009 draws to a close, we offer this note to our friends and family as a retrospective on the wonder of the year. It airs grievances, displays feats of strength and offers a feast of tales of the last 365 or so days. Throughout the year, Brent remained busy at work and Kathleen became even more integral to the YMCA and the school board in her volunteer positions, but she really wants a job. Anna and Ben have enjoyed pre-school and Jack has really taken to the piano and has merged it with his other great interest by learning the John Williams’ classic “March of the Imperials” from Star Wars. A couple of relatives experienced some medical troubles but have both received a positive prognosis which of course causes us to feel blessed.
The year began with our Baby New Year celebrating her 2nd birthday. This birthday made a big impact on her for whenever she now hears the word “party”, she assumes the party will celebrate her and that all parties become her “birthday party”. Immediately following Anna’s party, we had a whopper for Kathleen’s 40th. Planning begun near the end of the summer of 2008 and cumulated in a complete surprise as three of Kathleen’s brothers and two of her good out-of-town friends flew in to join with around 20 other friends at one of her favorite restaurants.
Around this time, Jack began playing basketball at the local YMCA, reminding Brent of his time playing youth hoops. Ben decided to imitate Evel Knievel on his bike and nearly careened off a 40 foot cliff into a ravine in the neighborhood. All ended well, however, as Ben leapt off the bike in the nick of time, merely slamming into a concrete abutment instead. Heaven called Brent’s Aunt Mary; while he lost a dear family member, the funeral provided a welcome opportunity for him to reconnect with others.
Having survived the ravine, Ben celebrated his 3rd birthday by accusing the party go-ers of stealing his presents (when, in fact,they brought presents)
and hiding in the pea gravel under the playground equipment. Golf ball-sized hail hammered the family station wagon but failed to total it; it still gets people around town.
The summer heat began to bear down on Central Texas, so of course Jack’s Cub Scout troop declared the 100 degree temperature of June a perfect time to camp outdoors. Jack and Brent had a great time as Jack learned archery, marksmanship, and earned his swimmer’s certificate. We celebrated the 4th of July as we usually do, with good friends in North Austin, but the summer drought dampened the usually enthusiastic pyrotechnic display. The family spent much of the rest of the summer in Austin avoiding the heat by hitting the favorite watering holes (swimming or otherwise) and other various summer activities.
August brought escape from the heat when the family headed out to Albuquerque New Mexico to visit Kathleen’s family and then drove up to Breckenridge Colorado and visited Brent’s old stomping grounds. Brent’s Montana relatives joined them for a week of Rocky Mountain activities.
September brought Brent’s 43rd birthday, spent with a night out with friends. Anna began pre-school, and began to really talk. And talk. And talk. All that talking drove Kathleen and Brent out of town to Vermont for a week of cycling on the back roads – Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Jane came to town to watch the kids. Wonders of wonders, they want to do it again.
Jack celebrated his 8th in October by inviting fellow Padawans over for a
night at Master Brent’s Jedi Training Academy. November brought potty-training to Anna and a fun Thanksgiving Week down in Corpus Cristi with family friends. December presented a new kitty to the family and an anticipation of 2010.
We hope that the past year brought as many blessing to your families as to ours.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
Posted at 02:59PM Jan 28, 2010 by schnee in General |
A Good Week
I had a good week.
Jack's YMCA Youth-league basketball team needed a coach and I volunteered. "Coach Schneeman" has echoes to my youth and I feel a bit of a connection there. More importantly, the connection between Jack and I strengthens at every practice, every game. Two Saturdays ago saw the first game and we play weekly for the next several weeks. I find coaching 6-8 year olds closer to herding cats than playing basketball. Still, I enjoy it and endeavor to teach the value of passing and team work.
On Wednesday, I attended the inaugural Ignite Austin event downtown at The Phoenix. The Ignite series of speaker events sit under the larger O'Reilly Media umbrella. The tagline alternates between "20 slides, 5 minutes, what would you say?" and "Entertain us. Enlighten Us. But Make it Snappy". Speakers are given five minutes and 20 slides that auto advance. The topics ranged broadly: "How to Open a Beer with Almost Anything", "Style, not Rules", "The Etymology of Curse Words" and "Is the Smart Grid the next Internet?" and several others. I actually submitted a proposal ("Funny Money: Strange Currencies through the Ages") but Ignite had a full dance card by the time I screwed up the courage to submit.
I found the topics fun, interesting and mostly entertaining. Running unexpectedly into my good friends (Frank and Adam R) formed the highlight of my evening, but winning the paper airplane contest came a close 2nd:
(mildly dismayed at seeing my graying hair and realizing that the camera really does add 10 pounds that I can't afford)
Winning gained me a pass to the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin in March. Should be fun.
And I'm working on my submission for the next Ignite Austin event. "Funny Money" is likely a good presentation, but I think "How to start a babysitting co-op and take over the world" will work better.
Downside to Ignite? I'm now using Twitter. Sigh. I thought I could remain blissfully clueless, but the Ignite people use Twitter to keep people informed. I now have to determine a strategy to balance Facebook and Twitter. Upside? A germ of an idea to marry Sitegeister technology with Twitter. Stay tuned.
Friday saw me presenting (via video conference) to the CEO of where I work. Five of us in Austin, one of him in San Jose, me doing the bulk of the speaking. The CEO came to Austin in November and through down a challenge. Interested, I answered the challenge and sort of took a leadership position. This meeting presented the initial efforts. Turns out we sort of missed the mark from the CEO's perspective, but we can hit it soon and hopefully turn the Austin office into a nice little innovation engine.
A new week begins. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Posted at 10:02AM Jan 18, 2010 by schnee in General | Comments[1]
Hook'em
There was a little football game last night. The University of Texas played the University of Alabama for the BCS Football Bowl Series Championship (or whatever it is called - let's just go with "The National Championship"). The Crimson Tide rolled over the Longhorns.
Drama, fear, and redemption all marked the game. I have several friends who went to UT and several more who are UT fans and I have empathy for their loss. And that empathy comes from a pretty good place. Anyone who needs a little co-misery may read on.
Posted at 08:48AM Jan 08, 2010 by schnee in General |
Thunderbolts and Lightning
Thor and Zeus stood on top of opposing peaks and battled for meteorologic dominance. I cowered in the middle.
Last weekend, I had a fantastic opportunity to travel to Boulder Colorado to learn a bit about my profession. I extended the start of the trip and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park for three days and two nights of camping in the high country - backpack, tent, sleeping bag, bear-proof food storage container - the whole deal. After getting my back country permit from the Park rangers, I headed out. I spent the first day near Fern Lake and generally got acclimated (both body and spirit) to being in the Park.
On Day Two, I left Fern Lake early in the morning and hiked up to my 2nd campsite - "Sourdough", situated just below the tree line at 10,600 feet. Unlike Fern Lake with its three other campsites, Sourdough sits alone, nary another campsite within three miles. After getting my site set up, I spent the day skirting the tree line and exploring the area, located in a valley surrounded by 2000 foot granite cliffs. I had a great time, and then I heard a loud rumble. Looking to the west, I saw some ominous and dark clouds rapidly advancing on my position. A couple of rumbles later, I exercised the better part of valor and scooted to my site.
Shortly, the rumbles got louder and louder and were preceded by lighting strikes. Rain started. Before getting in the tent, I saw lightning, counted to "one Mississippi, two Missi-" and then heard the thunder. The lightning flashed, the thunder crashed and the rain come down in sheets as thick as lead. The high altitude removed all dampening of the noise of the thunder and the giant cliff walls turned the valley into an enormous echo chamber. As I huddled in my tent, I realized that Thor stood here
and Zeus stood here
and they were hurling thunderbolts at each other in an attempt to establish pantheonic superiority. I don't know who won, but I probably lost. I worried. Clearly, I made it, but as the wind howled, the rain poured and the lightning increased in frequency, I cowered in my tent and tried to answer the question "What is the worst that can happen". Too many things could have gone wrong and when I had one answer ("oh, flood"), I came up with another ("oh, forest fire").
I grew.
I spent Day Three reflecting on the previous night's excitement and decided if I have the opportunity to do it again, I would.
Posted at 11:34AM Sep 06, 2009 by schnee in General |
Short Listed
A couple of weeks ago, I entered an architecturally-theme photography contest (Strobist Boot Camp II: Assignment 3). I made a photograph of my kitchen and entered it.
Yesterday, the winners were announced ...
... and I did not win.
However, the judge (Strobist, aka David Hobby) did leave a little note saying that I made the "short list" of the entries. Humility notwithstanding, I enjoy the validation.
I did hope, however, for a little joke from the Strobist regarding me putting my strobe in the oven.
Posted at 08:54AM Aug 25, 2009 by schnee in General |
Location, Location, Location
I recently went on a little house-hunting trip to Breckenridge, Colorado. I was there four years ago and this time, I took my family. I want to move (back) to Breck and I found my dream location. Good news - a Late Mid Century Fixer Upper already exists on the property. This exclusive property features stunning views, dramatic integration into the natural landscape, a mountain lake, and extreme privacy.
The view to the North East (well worth a click and then a subsequent view in biggest size)
The view out one of the picture windows in the kitchen:
The view from the back of the property, looking out over the home and the private lake:
And finally, the dramatic lighting design
I need to find the listing agent and a broker.
Posted at 12:54PM Aug 12, 2009 by schnee in General |
Strobist: Boot Camp II: Assignment #3
Strobist.com hosts a blog authored by David Hobby, the Strobist. David writes about photographic lighting and while a whole lot more than this, he teaches one to take the flash off the camera - off camera flash. Ideally, manual flash and manual metering. He takes setting up a photograph, with its infinite possibilities, and adds an infinite number more. Why? To make a better photograph.
He enjoys a certain amount of success as a blogger - among other benefits, he gets prizes donated for contests. The current contest - Assignment Three of his Boot Camp series - focuses on interior real estate photography. Ever since I remodeled my kitchen, I've wanted to photograph it. My wife and kids are out of town. Hey, idea...
Unlike some other contest, I won't win this one. My competition eats strobes for breakfast. But I had a good time, and I cleaned up the kitchen.
Posted at 09:43PM Jul 28, 2009 by schnee in Photography |
'Curious George' is not a How-To Manual
I like Curious George
George learns by doing. He wants a fleet of boats, he folds a bunch of newspapers and makes the fleet. He doesn't concern himself with the consequences - it does not matter that he needed to deliver the papers to the customers, he just wanted to float some boats. George wanted to help with the train schedule so he just did it. No matter that his schedule sent trains to "MxyTPlc" at "7k:45x", he helped out.
The Man With the Yellow Hat has the parenting skills to which I aspire. The Man possesses infinite patience and forgiveness - no matter what George winds up doing, The Man is there to support and nurture him. I understand how fiction works and how it differs from reality. Still, the Man is The Man.
I love my kids. They are healthier, smarter and more capable than any other set of children on the planet. They have terrific curious minds and always try out new things. One in particular (Ben) is always "just busy". Just busy seeing what happens when he takes a fork to a table. Just busy tying string to every door knob in the house. Just busy. Just curious.
Somedays, I need to sit back and think of the Man With the Yellow Hat. Maybe Curious George is a How-To Manual - how-to provide unconditional love to children.
Posted at 09:47AM Jul 20, 2009 by schnee in General |
Feel the Heat
This post's sound track brought to you by Robert Palmer.
Austin, TX has experienced super-100 degree (F) temperatures for a couple of weeks now. Heat like I haven't felt since leaving Phoenix. My kids, native Austinites all, are beginning to climb the walls.
Posted at 12:31PM Jul 12, 2009 by schnee in General |
It Is The Little Things
An unfortunate series of events conspired against me about a month ago, which resulted in a new camera. I evaluated the current offerings and decided that switching systems from Canon to Nikon made the most sense. Financially, it sucks - I need to sell my Canon lenses to buy Nikon equivalents, but the body (a Nikon D700) is more capable than anything offered by Canon for the price point.
I did purchase two prime lenses - a f/1.4 50mm and a f/2.8 24mm, in anticipation of a vacation I'll take. And I've put the camera through it's 'walk-around, snapshotting' shakedown. It passes. I need to get it into the studio and try some product photography soon, but I suspect that I'll want some longer lenses for that.
On the Fourth of July, I made photographs of the fireworks. The long-exposure, burning-trail kinds. Kids playing with sparklers, parents diving out of the trajectory of errant launches - that sort of thing. The fun stuff.
In the process, I noticed that the remote shutter release cable screws in, just like the 30 yr old Pentax ME Super that I cut my teeth on. That's fantastic. Little things.
Posted at 09:58AM Jul 06, 2009 by schnee in General |
