Here at Piraeus we aren’t starting to deck the halls before Thanksgiving, but a co-worker did send this interesting tree-related infographic my way and I thought I’d share it.

Just last night I had a rather lengthy conversation about the old-growth trees along the Olympic Peninsula. According to the Peninsula Daily News (from 2/2011), the Olympic National Park sees around 3,000,000 visitors annually, though there’s debate about the traffic counter’s accuracy.  Are you one of the 3 million?

I wonder if anyone has tried to see all of these old trees. I suspect there’s a dendrologist somewhere with it on their bucket-list

These days Business Intelligence is a term familiar to everyone from C.E.Os to developers and marketers… It’s a buzz word and a catch-all solution ranging from software implementation to teams of consultants.  But here are a few things you may not know about the history of B.I.

1. The man who coined the phrase “Business Intelligence” was born when people still believed in ether. That’s right, ether: the lumniferous, light transmitting substance that filled space.  Hans Peter Luhn, born in 1896, first used the term Business Intelligence in 1958, defining B.I. as “the ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal.”

2. Data storage is ancient. It goes back even further than Luhn.  Sumerian cuneiform, one of the earliest forms of written language, emerged as a way  to record transactions.  Imagine trying to merge a stone tablet and an Excel sheet…

3. Back in the 90s, Business Intelligence success by way of ERP Applications was a rare albino wilder-beast. According to Alan Simon and Steven Shaffer, “…studies in the 1992-1993 time frame proclaimed the failure rate for client/server projects to be anywhere from 70 to 85%, and for a brief period of time there was such a backlash directed at client/server computing that the entire distributed systems approach to computing was branded by many as a failure,” (Data Warehousing & Business Intelligence for e-Commerce).

Okay, you may know that last point, but it’s worth repeating.  Business Intelligence has come a long way from clay tablets, and partnering with the right B.I. company doesn’t involve the 85% chance of failure.

(For Part One, check out this earlier post from August.)

Came across a creative data visualization map of job losses and gains during 2007 to 2009 on great web-site called Slate Labs. They took information from The Bureau of Labor Statistics for the three years and created a map with the data.  While the worst of it makes you feel like you are watching a r”what if ” scenario of the Cold War USA during a MAD visualization, the end leaves you leaving cautiously optimistic.  Go Blue!

I found this fun blog called infosthetics.com that , according to the “about” page follows the the “symbiotic relationship between creative design and the field of information visualization. More specifically, it collects projects that represent data or information in original or intriguing ways.”

Definitely a fun site to explore. My favorites were the MTV Twitter posts from the VMAs, and the post about Weaving Meteorological Data into Artful Baskets.

Below is a picture of a basket weaved by Nathalie Miebach .  She translates astronomy, ecology and meteorology data – including parameters like land, sea and ocean temperature, tide readings, moon phases, the solar path in relation to horizon, the distance between Sun and Earth – as physical woven sculptures.  Definitely a beautiful and creative way of showing information and data.  Looking at them makes me a little nervous however, I wonder what would happen if I pulled on one of the pieces?

*DISCLAIMER*

We are currently working on design, so the blog might get a bit wonky for a bit. Thanks for your patience.

Wired highlighted the new Internet Explorer 9 Beta version that was just released.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta was made available for download shortly after it was announced at a launch event in San Francisco, around 10:00 a.m. Pacific time. The download link for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users can be accessed here.

The final version of IE9 is still some months off — Microsoft wouldn’t commit to a definite time frame for the browser’s release when we asked. But we’ve spent a few days in IE9 Beta’s company, and so far, it has proven to be a thoroughly modern machine. The world’s most-used browser is getting a new look, much expanded support for HTML5 and other 21st-century web technologies, and a big speed boost.

Quite a change. Microsoft has a reputation for being an also-ran when it comes to browser innovation. When IE8 arrived in March 2009, we found it rich in features, but lacking in support for the emerging standards powering the shiny apps that make the web exciting. IE8 was faster and more secure than its predecessor, but when it came to speed and productivity, it wasn’t up to snuff with its peers — Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera. In fact, it was a bit of a snooze.

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/internet-explorer-9-beta-drops-its-lean-fast-and-modern/#ixzz0zdL9kyGN

An interesting and informative video on Business Intelligence.  A little long (27 minutes), and the music in the background is dreadful, but a great resource for someone looking to learn more on BI.

Microsoft has chosen New York based company, Deutsch to handle all its cloud based advertising.  It will be interesting to see what Deutsch will do for MSFT cloud computing including Azure, and how this will be different then the last company JWT.  I am hoping that they come up with something clever.  Perhaps a talking animal or baby?  That always seems to work!

Apple revealed iTunes 10 and it’s very own music social network called “Ping,” which is described as Facebook meet Twitter for music. 

Ping allows users to follow others, just like Twitter. You can follow artists or your friends to find out what they’re listening or what they’re creating. It has custom song and album charts, a news feed, 17,000+ concert listings, and is available to 160 million iTunes users. Ping will be available not only for iTunes on the desktop, but for iPhone and iPod touch as well.

An unmanned robotic death & destruction helicopter went rogue over Washington D.C.  It was developed from a manned version and capable of carrying a fearsome arsenal of weapons. 

 the MQ-8 failed to follow its built-in failure protocol, instead continuing on course. Unmanned aircraft are generally restricted to operations in special military-controlled airspace and are forbidden to enter areas governed by normal civil rules.

“We found a software anomaly that allowed aircraft not to follow its preprogrammed flight procedures,” Dunigan tells Av Week. “We have identified the issue and have aircraft operating restrictions that will prevent this from happening again.”

Please pay close attention to the bold part, “We found a software anomaly that allowed the aircraft not to follow its preprogrammed flight procedures.” Robot-Apocalypse Phase 1 complete! This makes me feel safe, and by safe, I mean that I am glad that I had my bomb shelter built.