where grayMatters meets Data

Keeping on top of things

• I posted earlier about the ebooks portal and how to use an RSS Reader for search engine news/blogs feeds.  Well, I have signed up for the feed from Ebooks into my RSS reader and wow.  Automatic notification of new books in the portal.  Updated twice a day.  Now, I don't have to browse through the volumes of digitized books, thinking I missed something or make a note to check this site every couple of days to see what happened.  Great us of Pull technology.

• Up in Saskatoon for a girls hockey tournament.  Last of the year, I hope.  All in all something for parent and child to do... like running through a hotel at all hours making sure the girls are in their rooms, oh wait, they did that when they were younger...  But do they ever really change?
  The game last night was one they let get away.  Had a ton of pressure during the first period and what they goalie did not stop, the posts did.  Got a tie out of it, so it was not a complete loss.  Two games up today.  That will make them sleep tonight!

• Cleanup up my PC(s) with the extra hurry up and wait time.  Looking at several s/w packages for folder synchronization.  Might have something that works, at least if I can make it a habit.
  
• Been working with Intervera on a 'Trusted Well Master' seminar.  This will be held later in April in Calgary.  Promises to be interesting and helpful to my peers as I see/hear a lot of the companies going through the same problems that I am experiencing.

Shaping Up

Well, I went and did it.  Bought some Foose rims for the Mustang.  Now I have to look for tires.  Can't wait for spring to get here.  We need a good rain, not the snow that we have had for the last couple of times so the dust / grit /gravel can be washed off the roads and fun motoring can start.  Of course, potholes will start to appear...
When I was buying the rims, I looked at Vanquish'd again.  Man, what a sweet ride.  I hope they take it out during the summer to some shows around here.  I would love to see it in action.

Only on a Mac, you say

Found this real interesting s/w called NoteMind.  Too bad it is only available on a Mac as I would love to try out something like this.  I find that in my chosen field; Oil and Gas data Management, that pictures show the situation a lot better than a word document or excel spreadsheet.  That's one of the reasons that I like MindManager.  It allows me to zoom around at 50,000 feet, go down into the weeds at 500 and then do some more recon at 5,000.  I guess I might be a bit of a random abstract thinker so this really works for me.
Along the same lines, I found a Delphi component that might allow some type of this control.  I will try it out over the next couple of days and let you all know how it works.

Google.
Yahoo.
You have heard of them both.
Have you heard of Gahooyoogle?

It's a website that allows the user to search using both search engines at the same time.  The result set is displayed with each set of answers taking up 1/2 of your browser.  Need idea.  I have been trying it out for a couple of days and so far, one search engine has been giving me better answers.  It's nice to see what the other one does and there might be a gem or two in it, but ....

Working up to a new release

The PPDM Association is currently in the process of releasing version 3.8.  There are several new modules in this release, such as well operations and geochemistry.  What really interests me are the data Management and the meta-data mapping additions.  Finally, there will be a standards model where someone can track meta-data information from multiple systems in a single repository.  I have been doing that for several years and basically, it makes me look real smart.  I wish that it was there in v3.7 but oh well, better late than never.
I am helping out the PPDM by running some rudimentary checks on field lengths, data types, column name mismatches.  Nothing that hard but it is time consuming.  And nothing that I hate more than working with a table with a misspelt word or a data type that is in-correct.  Always easier to catch these things early in the release cycle rather than later.  My understanding that this will be the last alpha and that a beta release will happen in the summer with the full production release anticipated for the fall.  Possibly the fall conference?

It does mean that I will have to update my Load of the Rings application.  That's alright.  It's been a couple of years and maybe with this new meta model, I can really improve it.

Ideas

Spent most of the weekend doing weekend stuff.  All that running around meant that I could think about the problems that I see around Oil and Gas data Management.  In reviewing some articles that I have on my tablet (while watching the Oilers loose another hockey game), I came across a term that I really like and one that I think defines what we need:  dependency mapping. 

The ability to have a program that shows how data attributes/entity are connected, to each other, to processes, both inside the company and out.  Think of one of those 3-D molecules you had in high school chemistry.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to start with a question at anywhere around the structure and know that you can follow the links to get the complete picture. 

Yes, the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this is something that would be a great tool.  One that I sure would use.

Good thing that I like to dabble in Delphi.  I might have to write it myself!

It's not all work and no play

Just thought that I should publish a picture of my Mustang.  This was taken Canada Day 2006, right after a nice early morning ski and before the mid-day one.  My upgrades for this year are:

• New rims and wheels.  I am looking at 18" in the front and 20" in the back.  I would love to get Chip Foose rims, but ....
• Stripe(s) down the middle.  Done in flat black; ought to look sharp
• New mufflers; nothing wrong with the old one, just not throaty enough.

 

Trust

It's a funny thing, trust.  Hard to gain, easy to lose.
In our everyday lives, we are on both sides of the coin.  When we drop our car off at the dealership, we TRUST they are going to do what we pay them to do.  We TRUST they will employ people that know what they are doing.  When we find that they did not do what they said they would, they lose our TRUST.  Any future work done by them will be met by skepticism.  They will have to work TWICE as hard to regain that trust, if they ever do.

So, what does this have to do with Oil&Gas data Management?  The inability to fix a car properly, nothing; but TRUST.  Lots.  Our clients, the G&G staff want to believe that they are working with the latest data set.  That wells recently drilled are included in their project area.  But, the proof is on the map.  If they see the well spots, then they know that we are doing our job.  If they don't, they investigate.  They think that if we can't get something simple as new wells correct, then what else did we screw up on?  So, it boils down to trust  Are they willing to trust their project on our data delivery?  Sure, they are, after we gain their TRUST.

Wouldn't it be great if ...

This book really existed:

Day 1 of the new workflow

So today was the first day that I was truly going to try using my TC1100 as a portable notebook otherwise known as a tablet.  It started with the bus ride to work.  I sat down, fired up the tablet and reviewed a book that I downloaded from ebooksportal as well as tried to understand how to work M/S OneNote.  By the time my 1/2 hour was done, I was pumped.  What a great use of time.  So, it was on to conquer the day.

I had a 1 1/2 hour meeting in the morning where I captured notes in the tablet.  This was great.  I can put meetings in different folders, days in different books, clients in different notes.  All good.  The only downer was the comments from the various jealousy cats about how their paper notebooks don't need charging; if they get wet, theres can go in the dryer, etc.  All in good fun but all very good points.  After the meeting, I was down to approx 60% battery life, so I plugged it in over lunch to charge.

The afternoon started off with another meeting and the battery was fully charged and ready to go.  Again, I had to explain what the tablet was to the other attendees, but these people were much kinder to me...  Must have been the sugar high from cheap lunch swill.  The tablet worked as anticipated.  The best part was after the meeting when some people asked me about it and could not believe that the TC1100 is over 3 years old.  An even better thing then happened.  I stopped in a co-workers office to discuss a problem that he had and the answer was on the tablet.  So rather than having to go back to my desk, look it up on my machine and then phone/email him, we were able to carry on our discussion of the problem and take it to the next level.

So all in all, I consider it a pretty good 1st day with my TC1100.  I just hope that I don't drop the darn thing and that I get a decent backup plan working.  But that's another post.

Got it back

Well it took most of the evening, but I finally have my Table PC Input Panel back with the keypad.  Turns out the problem was fixed by successfully re-installing .Net Framework 1.1 and it's various service packs.  And to get that running took a bunch of installs/reboots and finger-crossing because there were a couple of times where I felt I was going backwards in solving the problem.
And now that I know where the M/S certificate of authenticity is, I can re-build the tablet when I want to.  I think that I am finally ready to tackle my objective for buying the tablet; re-working my workflow.